On Tyranny: Including the Strauss-Kojève Correspondence

An analysis of the classic Greek dialogue about absolute rule and the impassioned commentary it inspired between two philosophers.

On Tyranny is Leo Strauss's classic reading of Xenophon's dialogue Hiero, or Tyrannicus, in which the tyrant Hiero and the poet Simonides discuss the advantages and disadvantages of exercising tyranny. Included are a translation of the dialogue from its original Greek, a critique of Strauss's commentary by the French philosopher Alexandre Kojève, and the complete...