Death of Socrates
Trial and Exicution
This year, 399 B.C, the great philosopher Socrates was executed. Socrates was charged with corrupting the youth of our city-state and impiety against the pantheon of Athens. This was a legal consequence of asking politico-philosophic questions of his students, from which he was accused of moral corruption and of impiety. Claiming loyalty to his city he clashed with the current course of Athenian politics and society. One of his students said," He is a good person, he made us question everything about society, I understand why they would do this but I still don't agree with it." Socrates defended his role as gadfly until the end:at his trial, when he was asked to propose his own punishment, he sugggested a wage paid by the government and free dinners for the rest of his life instead, to finance the time he spent as Athens benefactor. But in the end he was found guilty of both corrupting the minds of the youths and if impiety, and subsequently sentenced to death by drinking a mixture containing poison hemlock.
Life of Socrates
The Major Events of Socrates Life
Socrates was born 470/469 B.C. to the tribe Antiochis. His father Sophroniscus was a sculptor, or a stonemason, his mother Phaenarete was a midwife. He married Xanthippe, with whom he had three sons; Lamprocels, Sophroniscus, and Menexenus. Socrates had also fulfilled a military service as a hop lite, participating in the Peloponnesian war. He was active for Athens in several battles, Alcibiades even claims Socrates' Valor had saved his life. Socrates later participated as the Epistates in the debate about what to do about the generals who had abandoned their own slain and injured soldiers to chase a defeated Spartan navy. His and others decisions were to judge this to be a miscarriage of justice and were covicted. Eventually, Socrates was summoned by the Tholos and told by the oligarchy of the Thirty to go to Salamis, and from there, to return to them with Leon of Salaminian where Socrates would have been brought back and subsequently executed. However, Socrates returned home and did not go to Salamis as expected. This led.to his trial.