The Trial of Socrates

                                                Athens, Greece 399 B.C.E.

      

       It was a packed courtroom located in the civic center of Athens. It had 501 jurors. A man named Socrates stands accused of refusing to acknowledge the gods recognized by the State and of introducing new and different gods and corrupting the youth of Athens. The penalty demanded is death.The atmosphere of the trial court was so tense with rage that you might have thought the place was about to blow up into flames. 

*1 The court room of the Trial of Socrates 

      They each took turns with their arguments. The three accusers, Meletus, Anytus, and Lycon, presented from an elevated stage their argument within three hours for guilty. Their time was measured by a water clock. Socrates defends himself in honesty and directness. He explains that his behavior stems from a prophecy by the oracle at Delphi which claimed that he was the wisest of all men. Recognizing his own ignorance, Socrates concluded that he must be wiser than other men only in that he knows that he knows nothing. In order to spread this peculiar wisdom, Socrates explains that he considered it his duty to question supposed "wise" men and to expose their false wisdom as ignorance. These activities earned him much admiration among the youth of Athens, but much hatred and anger from the people he embarrassed. He cites their contempt as the reason for his being put on trial. The court case went on an unfair trial of accusing Socrates based on their own opinions and theories they made about him from rumors.  *1

       Socrates in his own defense proceeds to interrogate Meletus, the man primarily responsible for bringing Socrates before the jury. The Apology is Plato's version of the speech given by Socrates as he defended himself against the charges of corrupting the youths of Athens, and not believing in the Gods that the states believe in. His argument with Meletus was directed toward embarrassing Meletus rather than actually stating facts and arriving toward the truth. He was foolishly joking around during the trial, making people mock him and not take him seriously. *2

      After the conviction of Socrates by a relatively close vote, he was condemned by sixty votes. The trial entered its penalty phase which the accusers and defendants were given opportunities to propose a punishment for Socrates. After listening to arguments from both sides, the jurors chose one of the two proposed punishments for Socrates. The accusers of Socrates proposed the punishment of death. In proposing death, the accusers also expected the other side to come up with a proposal for exile punishment. This might have satisfied both sides and the jury. However, Socrates didn't want to be exiled or wanted to run away. Instead, he took the death penalty. He drank hemlock poison and died, but he remains the most famous of all philosophers. *3

       In my opinion, i don't think that justice was served because Socrates was only trying to express his own thoughts and beliefs. Yet, he was deprived of that freedom of speech to express his own religious beliefs. They executed him for expressing his true feelings. In addition to that, he was also mistaken as trying to corrupt the youths with his non-belief of the Greek Gods and trying to make the younger generations question about Greek Gods. However, all Socrates wanted to do was to express his true thoughts and didn't want to be chained up and forced to believe something he doesn't want to. That's why he would rather die than live in a society where you couldn't even have the right to have your own opinions. So that's how Socrates didn't run away and died at the trial.

Resources:

1. The Trial and Death of Socrates,Paragraph 2, 11-7-13 

http://www.ageofthesage.org/greek/philosopher/trial_death_socrates.html

2. Jacques-Louis David, The Death of Socrates, Paragraph 3, 11-6-1

http://www.pima.gov/publicdefender/socrates.htm

3. Doug Linder, The Trial Of Socrates, 2002, Paragraph 4, 11-7-13

http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/socrates/socratesaccount.html