What was socrates condemned for

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However, his ideas and methods were controversial, too, which led him to be tried before judges and sentenced to death, which he carried out by drinking hemlock poison. He had been charged for not worshiping the Athenian gods and for corrupting the young.

Except for his time spent in military service, Socrates lived his entire life in Athens, where he was as well known for his disheveled appearance as for his moral integrity, self-control, and quest for wisdom.

The tyrants were forced from power before they could punish Socrates, but in he was indicted for failing to honor the Athenian gods and for corrupting the young.

Although some historians suggest that there may have been political machinations behind the trial, he was condemned on the basis of his thought and teaching. Socrates is unique among the great philosophers in that he is portrayed and remembered as a quasi-saint or religious figure. His passion for definitions and hair-splitting questions inspired the development of formal logic and systematic ethics from the time of Aristotle through the Renaissance and into the modern era.

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The Athenian philosopher Plato c. In his written dialogues he conveyed and expanded on the ideas and techniques of his teacher Socrates. The Academy he The Greek philosopher Aristotle B. Though overshadowed in classical times by the work of his teacher Plato, from late antiquity The so-called golden age of Athenian culture flourished under the leadership of Pericles B.

Pericles transformed his The warrior Achilles is one of the great heroes of Greek mythology. One of the greatest ancient historians, Thucydides c. What appears almost certain is that the decisions to prosecute and ultimately convict Socrates had a lot to do with the turbulent history of Athens in the several years preceding his trial. An examination of that history may not provide final answers, but it does provide important clues.

Socrates , the son of a sculptor or stonecutter and a midwife, was a young boy when the rise to power of Pericles brought on the dawning of the "Golden Age of Greece. Pericles created the people's courts and used the public treasury to promote the arts. He pushed ahead with an unprecedented building program designed not only to demonstrate the glory that was Greece, but also to ensure full employment and provide opportunities for wealth creation among the non-propertied class.

The rebuilding of the Acropolis and the construction of the Parthenon were the two best known of Pericles' many ambitious building projects. Growing to adulthood in this bastion of liberalism and democracy, Socrates somehow developed a set of values and beliefs that would put him at odds with most of his fellow Athenians.

Socrates was not a democrat or an egalitarian. To him, the people should not be self-governing; they were like a herd of sheep that needed the direction of a wise shepherd. He denied that citizens had the basic virtue necessary to nurture a good society, instead equating virtue with a knowledge unattainable by ordinary people. Striking at the heart of Athenian democracy, he contemptuously criticized the right of every citizen to speak in the Athenian assembly.

Socrates rubbing chin and Plato under tree from a mosaic from Pompeii. Writing in the third-century C. Laertius wrote that "men set upon him with their fists or tore his hair out," but that Socrates "bore all this ill-usage patiently.

We get one contemporary view of Socrates from playwright Aristophanes. In his play Clouds , first produced in B. He is portrayed "stalking the streets" of Athens barefoot, "rolling his eyes" at remarks he found unintelligent, and "gazing up" at the clouds.

Socrates at the time of Clouds must have been perceived more as a harmless town character than as a serious threat to Athenian values and democracy. Socrates himself, apparently, took no offense at his portrayal in Clouds. Plutarch, in his Moralia , quoted Socrates as saying, "When they break a jest upon me in the theatre, I feel as if I were at a big party of good friends. Bust of Aristophanes.

Other plays of the time offer additional clues as to the reputation of Socrates in Athens. Comic poet Eupolis has one of his characters say: "Yes, and I loathe that poverty-stricken windbag Socrates, who contemplates everything in the world but does not know where his next meal is coming from. Aristophanes labels a gang of pro-Sparta aristocratic youths as "Socratified. The standing of Socrates among his fellow citizens suffered mightily during two periods in which Athenian democracy was temporarily overthrown, one four-month period in and another slightly longer period in The prime movers in both of the anti-democratic movements were former pupils of Socrates, Alcibiades and Critias.

Athenians undoubtedly considered the teachings of Socrates--especially his expressions of disdain for the established constitution--partially responsible for the resulting death and suffering. Alcibiades, perhaps Socrates' favorite Athenian politician, masterminded the first overthrow.

Alcibiades had other strikes against him: four years earlier, Alcibiades had fled to Sparta to avoid facing trial for mutilating religious pillars-- statues of Hermes --and, while in Sparta, had proposed to that state's leaders that he help them defeat Athens.

Critias, first among an oligarchy known as the "Thirty Tyrants," led the second bloody revolt against the restored Athenian democracy in The revolt sent many of Athens's leading democratic citizens including Anytus, later the driving force behind the prosecution of Socrates into exile, where they organized a resistance movement.

Critias, without question, was the more frightening of the two former pupils of Socrates. Stone , in his The Trial of Socrates , describes Critias a cousin of Plato's as "the first Robespierre," a cruel and inhumane man "determined to remake the city to his own antidemocratic mold whatever the human cost.

One incident involving Socrates and the Thirty Tyrants would later become an issue at his trial. Although the Thirty normally used their own gang of thugs for such duties, the oligarchy asked Socrates to arrest Leon of Salamis so that he might be executed and his assets appropriated. Socrates refused to do so. Socrates would point to his resistance to the order as evidence of his good conduct.

On the other hand, Socrates neither protested the decision nor took steps to warn Leon of Salamis of the order for his arrest--he just went home. While good citizens of Athens were being liquidated right and left, Socrates--so far as we know--did or said nothing to stop the violence. The horrors brought on by the Thirty Tyrants caused Athenians to look at Socrates in a new light. His teachings no longer seemed so harmless.

He was no longer a lovable town eccentric. Socrates--and his icy logic--came to be seen as a dangerous and corrupting influence, a breeder of tyrants and enemy of the common man. A general amnesty issued in meant that Socrates could not be prosecuted for any of his actions during or before the reign of the Thirty Tyrants. He could only be charged for his actions during the four years preceding his trial in B. It appears that Socrates, undeterred by the antidemocratic revolts and their aftermaths, resumed his teachings and once again began attracting a similar band of youthful followers.

The final straw may well have been another antidemocratic uprising--this one unsuccessful--in