SOCRATES (c. 470 B.c.-399 B.C.), the great Athenian philos opher, was put to death in 399 B.C. at the age of 7o. His birth thus falls in or about 470, ten years after Salamis. His father, Sophroniscus, was a friend of the family of the "Just" Aristeides; the tale that he was a sculptor first appears in the 3rd century in Timon of Phlius and seems to be only a misinterpretation of a playful remark in Plato. His mother, Phaenarete, acted as a "midwife," but no inference as to social status can be founded on this. The memoir writer, Ion of Chios, mentioned meeting him at Samos in the company of Archelaus, the Athenian suc cessor of Anaxagoras, presumably during the military operations of 441-440. The connection between the two men is also asserted by Aristoxenus the Peripatetic and the doxographical tradition based on Theophrastus calls Socrates the "disciple" of Archelaus. Plato, Xenophon, Aeschines of Sphettus agree in depicting him as intimate with the leading figures of the Periclean circle (As pasia, Alcibiades, Axiochus, Callias). Xenophon (Mem. iv. 7) concurs with Plato in saying that he was well versed in geometry and astronomy, and this representation agrees with the narrative of Plato's Phaedo and the Aristophanic burlesque of the Clouds. Socrates must already have been a conspicuous figure at Athens when Aristophanes and Ameipsias both made him the subject of their comedies in 423, and since the comedians made a special point of his neediness he had probably suffered recent losses. (The marked poverty of his old age is said in Plato's Apology to have been caused by his preoccupation with his mission to mankind.) Socrates was married, apparently late in life, to Xanthippe, by whom he left three sons, one an infant. Xenophon speaks of her high temper ; there is no evidence that she was a "shrew"; the sons, according to Aristotle, proved insignificant (Rhetoric B., 139o, b. 31).
Socrates' record for prowess and endurance was distinguished. He served as a hoplite, perhaps at Samos (441-44o), at Potidaea, where he saved the life of Alcibiades (432-430), Delium (424) and Amphipolis ( ?422 or ?437-436). In politics he took no part,
knowing, as he told his judges, that office would mean compromise with his principles. Once at least,' in 406-5 he was a member of the council of 500, and at the trial of the victors of Arginusae, being one of the prutaneis, resisted, at first with the support of his colleagues, afterwards alone, the unconstitutional condemna tion of the generals by a collective verdict. He showed the same courage two years later in the "Terror" of 404. The "thirty" wishing to implicate honourable men in their proceedings, in structed Socrates with four others to arrest Leon, one of their victims. Socrates disobeyed, and says, in Plato's Apology, that this might have cost him his life but for the counter-revolution of the next year.
In 399, four years after the amnesty, he was indicted for "impiety." The author of the proceeding was the influential Anytus, one of the two chiefs of the restored democrats, but the 'This was not, of course, a "magistracy." Plato, Gorgias 474a, seems to refer to another earlier occasion.
nominal prosecutor was the obscure and insignificant Meletus. There were two counts in the accusation, "corruption of the young" and "neglect of the gods when the city worships and the practice of religious novelties."' Socrates, who treated the charge with contempt and made a "defence" which amounts to avowal and justification, was convicted, probably by 28o votes against 2 20. The prosecutors had asked for the penalty of death; it now rested with the accused to make a counter-proposition. A smaller, but substantial, penalty would have been accepted, but Socrates took the high line that he really merited the treatment of an eminent benefactor, maintenance at the public table. He only consented for form's sake to suggest the small fine of one mina, raised at the entreaty of his friends to 3o.