Plato's famous allegory of the cave comes from Book Seven of the Republic, a dialogue which most people believe was written in Plato's so-called middle period. Plato was born around 429 BCE, at least half a century after Parmenides, into an aristocratic family in Athens a family which, on his father's side, could trace its lineage back to the legendary first kings of Athens. As well as possessing a great deal more of his writings(in fact, almost uniquely for antiquity, scholars believe that we possess his