Beginning Plato

If you are looking to delve into some beginning Plato, before you jump right on the Republic, I might suggest picking up some of his shorter dialogues like the Ion or the Phaedrus. Both dialogues are short and relatively accessible to the beginning reader and offer up some of Plato's philosophy, such as how rhetoric plays a role in the Athenian community, what it means to be a young citizen in Athens and what one must do, and not do, in order to establish a respectable character, among other ideologies.