© 2001 Bernard SUZANNE Last updated March 8, 2009
Plato and his dialogues : Home - Biography - Works and links to them - History of interpretation - New hypotheses - Map of dialogues : table version or non tabular version. Tools : Index of persons and locations - Detailed and synoptic chronologies - Maps of Ancient Greek World. Site information : About the author.

Frequently Asked Questions
about Plato


Quoting Plato: Stephanus references

People not familiar with Plato may wonder what are those weird numbers and letters used in references to his works after the name of the quoted dialogue. Here is the answer.

The figures and letters used almost universally to quote Plato refer to a Renaissance edition of his works published in Geneva in 1578 by a famed printer and humanist of the time named Henri Estienne (1528-1598), also known by the Latinized version of his name : Stephanus. This complete edition of Plato's works was in three volumes, whose page were continuously numbered from beginning to end of each volume. Each page of this edition is split in two columns, the inner one providing the Greek text and the outer one a Latin translation (by Jean de Serres). In between the two columns are printed letters from A to E dividing the column into five sections (another page of this site dedicated to this edition includes pictures of some of its pages, thus alowing a more visual understanding of this disposition).

Based on this, a quotation of Plato includes the name of the dialogue (plus the book number for Republic and Laws), the page number in the Stephanus edition followed by the letter of the section including the first word of the quotation. No volume number needs to be provided because no dialogue splits over two volumes, and thus, the dialogue name suffices to make the reference unambiguous. Thus, quotations take the form Sophist, 247d (the "provisional" definition of being) or Republic, V, 473c (the principle of the philosopher-king). Quotations are usually given with reference to the start and end point of the quoted section. If the end point is in the same page as the start point, only the end section letter is added, and the quotation takes the form Sophist, 247d-e. If the end point is in a different page, the end page number and section letter are provided too, and the quotation takes the form Apology, 29e-30a (the summary of Socrates "mission" at the center of the Apology).

In order to help in using this quotation system, most editions of Plato's works, in Greek or in translations, provide the Stephanus references, either in margins or within the text itself, sometimes in running titles. Obviously, with translations, the changes of sections are only approximate, due to the fact that a translation never faithfully follows the order of the words in the original language.

In some instances, as when refering to a single word or a short sequence of words, a line number is added after the section letter (this is obviously the case with a "word index", such as Leonard Brandwood's "Word Index to Plato", a book listing in alphabetical order all Greek words appearing in Plato's works with Stephanus references for all occurrences). Unfortunately, accurate line numbering for such references is much harder to get and is almost never reproduced in modern editions of the Greek text (obviously, this line numbering could only be approximate in translations, even more so than section changes). The reference edition used for line numbering is usually the Oxford Classical Texts (OCT) edition of Plato's works in five volumes.

The distribution of dialogues across the three volumes of the Stephanus edition is as provided in the table below, with start and end reference of each dialogue.

Volume 1
Euthyphro 2a 16a
Apology 17a 42a
Crito 43a 54e
Phædo 57a 118a
Theages 121a 131a
Rival Lovers 132a 139a
Theætetus 142a 210d
Sophist 216a 268b
Euthydemus 271a 307c
Protagoras 309a 362a
Hippias minor 363a 376c
Cratylus 383a 440e
Gorgias 447a 527e
Ion 530a 542b
Volume 2
Philebus 11a 67b
Meno 70a 100b
Alcibiades 103a 135e
2nd Alcibiades 138a 151c
Charmides 153a 176d
Laches 178a 201c
Lysis 203a 223b
Hipparquus 225a 232c
Menexenus 234a 249e
Statesman 257a 311c
Minos 313a 321d
Republic I 327a 354c
Republic II 357a 383c
Republic III 386a 417b
Republic IV 419a 445e
Republic V 449a 480a
Republic VI 484a 511e
Republic VII 514a 541b
Republic VIII 543a 569c
Republic IX 571a 592b
Republic X 595a 621d
Laws I 624a 650b
Laws II 652a 674c
Laws III 676a 702e
Laws IV 704a 724b
Laws V 726a 747e
Laws VI 751a 785b
Laws VII 788a 824a
Laws VIII 828a 850c
Laws IX 853a 882c
Laws X 884a 910d
Laws XI 913a 938c
Laws XII 941a 969d
Epinomis 973a 992e
Volume 3
Timæus 17a 92c
Critias 106a 121c
Parmenides 126a 166c
Symposium 172a 223d
Phædrus 227a 279c
Hippias major 281a 304e
Letter I 309a 310b
Letter II 310b 315a
Letter III 315a 319e
Letter IV 320a 321c
Letter V 321c 322c
Letter VI 322c 323d
Letter VII 323d 352a
Letter VIII 352b 357d
Letter IX 357d 358b
Letter X 358b 358c
Letter XI 358d 359c
Letter XII 359c 359e
Letter XIII 360a 363e
Axiochus 364a 372a
On Justice 372a 375d
On Virtue 376a 379d
Demodocus 380a 386b
Sisyphus 387b 391d
Eryxias 392a 406a
Clitophon 406a 410e
Definitions 411a 416a

 

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Plato and his dialogues : Home - Biography - Works and links to them - History of interpretation - New hypotheses - Map of dialogues : table version or non tabular version. Tools : Index of persons and locations - Detailed and synoptic chronologies - Maps of Ancient Greek World. Site information : About the author.

First published on this site September 23, 2001 - Last updated March 8, 2009
© 2001 Bernard SUZANNE (click on name to send your comments via e-mail)
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