Epistles (Plato)

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The Epistles (Greek: Ἐπιστολαί; Latin: Epistolae^[1]) of Plato are a series of thirteen letters traditionally included in the Platonic corpus. With the exception of the Seventh Letter, they are generally considered to be forgeries, although many scholars even reject the seventh. They were "generally accepted as genuine until modern times";^[2] but by the close of the nineteenth century, many philologists believed that none of the letters were actually written by Plato.

The Epistles focus mostly on Plato's time in Syracuse and his influence on the political figures Dion and Dionysius. They are generally biographical rather than philosophical, although several, notably the Seventh Letter, gesture at the doctrines of Plato's philosophy. Only two, the Second and Seventh, directly reference Plato's teacher Socrates, the major figure within his philosophical dialogues.