The trial and
execution of of
Socrates in Athens in 399 B.C.E. puzzles historians. Why, in a
society
enjoying more freedom and democracy than any the world had ever seen,
would
a seventy-year-old philosopher be put to death for what he was
teaching?
The puzzle is all the greater because Socrates had taught--without
molestation--all
of his adult life. What could Socrates have said or done than
prompted
a jury of 500 Athenians to send him to his death just a few years
before
he would have died naturally?
Finding an
answer to the mystery
of the trial of Socrates is complicated by the fact that the two
surviving
accounts of the defense (or apology) of Socrates both come from
disciples
of his, Plato and Xenophon. Historians suspect that Plato and
Xenophon,
intent on showing their master in a favorable light, failed to present
in their accounts the most damning evidence against Socrates. [CONTINUED]
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