15 Comments
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Will's avatar

No love for Epictetus?

(He wouldn’t be upset for being left off the list)

Sean Berube's avatar

I respect the Stoics, but not in my personal top 10. Epictetus’ humility and fortitude are certainly noteworthy though!

Judith Dianne Ely's avatar

I can’t wait to read these in our book club!

Sean Berube's avatar

Most definitely! We’ll have to tackle all of them eventually

Charlotte Balladine's avatar

Wonderful list, particularly number 4! The nuances surrounding conceptions of justice remain so applicable today, an imperative read 👏

Sean Berube's avatar

Thank you Charlotte! And yes, prob the most underrated on the list imo 🙌

JP Saad's avatar

This is the list I needed as a 16 year-old that I was never given, time to catch up! I’m planning on making my way through the Bible, would you recommend these as side-alongs or before/after?

Sean Berube's avatar

Either works! Side along is perfectly fine if you were already planning on jumping into Scripture

Isaac Thomas Mounce's avatar

Read Thucydides and Xenophon (Socrates other famous student) as well. Military leaders, historians, and statesmen still learn from them.

Luis Filipe de Andrade Sousa's avatar

I'm reading the Aeneiad and I now realize what the discussion if Virgil was greater then Homer really means.

Classical Roman Guy's avatar

Interesting read. The Greeks definitely knew what they were doing. Maybe I should something like this for the Ancient Romans. Let me know what books you'd like to recommend.

David Black MD's avatar

I've been reading Plato and Aristotle seriously for several years.

Ill letbyou facilitate my understanding of the others.

These writers are a major stabilizing force in my daily life as my brain combats the cognitive dissonance of everything around me. GregSadler.com facilitates my understanding as well

Tom Pappas's avatar

Great list. One major omission, though: Xenophon.

If Plato is one student of Socrates, Xenophon is the other. The Anabasis and Education of Cyrus both reward a close reading and offer a very different window into the Socratic world and the Greek understanding of leadership.

Also, a practical hack for newcomers: Hackett’s Plato: Five Dialogues (Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Meno, Phaedo) gives you the core Socratic arc in a single volume. Hard to beat as a starting point.

JohnH's avatar

I agree with all of these, but I think I’d add The Bacchae, by Euripides. Supplemented by a non-Greek book, The Greeks and the Irrational, by E.R. Dodds.