Do I have to read the pre-Socratics or can I just jump straight

The Republic

There's honestly very little from the presocratics. What there is is worth reading though. There's a podcast "The History of Philosophy Without any Gaps" by a philosophy professor that covers the presocratics really well in, like, 10 short podcasts. That would be a good starting point I think.

>>2125771
Gotcha. Fuck everyone before Plato.

Should I read works of philosophers with commentaries and companion books or should I just read it and determine my own interpretation?

>>2125813
It really depends. It's definitely helpful to get input from people whose life it is to study the work, but make sure their single interpretation isn't the only one you read. That's the fun thing about philosophy, especially around ancient philosophy. There's so much context we don't automatically know that having a broader view is really helpful. Like in the Apology (Socrates' defense speech when he's fighting the death penalty) he mentions most of his jury would know him from a comedic play. We actually have the play still (The Clouds by Aristophanes which is actually really funny) and can read that and see what the popular view of Socrates was in his lifetime. As far as Greek philosophy, Epicureanism and Stoicism are both incredibly easy to grasp and enjoy since they were written for the common person. It's important to understand their relation to Socrates, though.

>>2125813
(a. read works first
(b. create opinion of that work
(c. read contemporaries and commentaries to compare and contrast

in that order