What we know of Socrates comes second-hand. How much is true?

Should we just do whatever we can get away with, justice be damned?

Several different views on justice were adopted by—or at least attributed to—the Sophists.

Most of what we know of the Sophists comes from their enemies. Who were they, really?

Thucydides paints a nuanced picture of Athens, contrasting its domestic and foreign policies.

Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War looks at political events without romance.

Herodotus’ writings on the Greco-Persian wars contain insights into Greek political thought.

Aristophanes explored the relationship between the ancient Greeks and their gods. Are people only pious to avoid bad luck? To get some boon in return?

Aristophanes often discussed economic topics, sometimes putting arguments in the mouths of his characters, other times showing different possible economic systems.

In Lysistrata, Assemblywomen, and Thesmophoriazousai Aristophanes anticipated some aspects of the modern belief in women’s equality.

Opposition to war was a recurring theme in Aristophanes’s plays, especially Acharnians and Lysistrata.

Poking fun at politicians? A tradition at least as old as ancient Greece, as the comedies of Aristophanes show.

Euripides’s plays evince a concern for women and other disenfranchised groups in ancient Greek society.

The plays of Euripides condemned war on grounds libertarians should find appealing.

Long discusses the treatment of punishment and criminal justice in Aeschylus’s Eumenides.

Long examines political themes in Ancient Greek drama.

Athens had many procedural safeguards against undesirable behavior.

How were police services, courts, and education provided in ancient Athens?