Lycon the demagogue had made all the necessary preparations.Īntisthenes, in his Successions of the Philosophers, and Plato in his Apology, say that there were three accusers: Anytus, Lycon and Meletus. The speech was written by Polycrates the Sophist, according to Hermippus others say that it was by Anytus.

The charge was lodged by Meletus, and the speech was given by Polyeuctes, according to Favorinus in his Miscellaneous History. Later Anytus helped persuade Meletus to lodge a charge of impiety and of corrupting the youth against Socrates. Anytus could not endure being ridiculed by Socrates, so he stirred up Aristophanes and his friends against him. These were his words and the deeds of his life, to which the Pythian Priestess was referring when she gave her famous answer to Chaerophon, 'Of all men living, Socrates is the wisest.' This was the cause of the envy in which he was held, above all because he would challenge those who thought highly of themselves, making them out to be fools, as he treated Anytus, according to Plato in the Meno. ĭiogenes of Laerte Lives of the Philosophers, 'Socrates':

Socrates, he said, also maid the youth think that other men were of no account in comparison with himself, for he persuaded them that he was the wisest man and the most competent in making others wise. The Prosecutor also said that Socrates claimed that the only men worthy of honor were those who knew their duty and could explain what they knew. 'But,' said the Prosecutor, 'Socrates taught his companions to abuse their parents by persuading them that he made them wiser than their parents and by claiming that according to the law it was possible for a son, if he proved his father insane, to imprison even his own father. Kritias was the most rapacious and violent of all in the oligarchy, while Alcibiades was the most intemperate and insolent of all the democracy. 'But,' said the Prosecutor, 'Kritias and Alcibiades were associates of Socrates, and they wrought the greatest harm to the state. Socrates believed that the gods know everything–word, deed, and silent thought alike–and that they were present everywhere, and that they gave signs to men about all human affairs. As for himself, he was always discussing himan problems. He did not hold discussions on the nature of the Universe, as most of the others did.

The charge against him ran like this: 'Socrates is guilty of not paying respect to the gods whom the state respects, of introducing new divinities, and of corrupting the young.'. I have often wondered what arguments Socrates' prosecutors could ever have used to prove to the Athenians that he deserved to forfeit his life to the State.

The trial of socrates book