Athens 399 B.C.E.

The Trial of Socrates

 5.

         Socrates is accused of Atheism (No belief in any god.) and importing, and or corrupting the minds of the young with his ideals. During the trial Socrates gave his testimony on why he should be acquitted for his crimes , he gave a rather impressive argument although he did not take the trial very seriously and that reflected on him badly.  When the trail ended Socrates was found guilty.  Socrates was placed in his prison to await his death after his trial had took place.  Crito pays Socrates a visit about the arrangements to smuggle Socrates out of prison to the safety of exile. Although Socrates seemed quite willing to await his impending execution, realizing this Crito presents many arguments to persuade Socrates to escape, but to no avail.  Socrates death will reflect badly on his friends, people will think they did nothing to try to save him. Also, Socrates will not worry about the financial cost to his friends although they are willing to pay, and they have also arranged to find Socrates a pleasant life in exile.  Crito presents two more pressing arguments: first, if he stayed, he would be aiding his enemies in wronging him unjustly, and would be acting unjustly himself.  This means he would also be abandoning his sons and leaving them without a father.  Socrates still did not change his mind.  2.,3.

         Socrates was a wise man, he was told this by the Oracle .  When the trial was drawing near, Athens was coming out of a major recession  The Golden Age had just come to an end.  The Golden Age ended in 399 B.C.E.  Socrates was the wiser of all those in the city, even knowing this he was never over confident or felt that he was above everyone else.He was a modest man and the people still looked at him as if he was a pompous man.  The jurors also saw him this way, which lead to his conviction and death.  1.

         Justice was not served  I believe that Socrates should have fled with his friends to safety. Socrates did not take his trial very seriously and that did not help him to be acquitted, but even though he was jesting during his testimony he did not deserve such a rash course of action.  There was a jury of 501 jurors and he was sentenced to death by the count of thirty more votes against him and was killed just because he thought differently than everyone one else, he dared to believe reason rather than the gods and was gravely punished.  The reason why i believe he wasn't given a fare trial is because they were angry with him.  They were angry because he dared to ask the questions that none of them could answer, and dared to believe that there were no gods, that everything that occurs can be explained through logic.  This way of thinking questioned everyone in the cities way of thinking, they wanted to get rid of him before others could get "corrupted" and ask the very same questions that Socrates asked.

4.
Resources:

1.Trial of Socrates blog post by Shadi Landrum- http://land8576.blogspot.com/
2.Video on the Trial of Socrates
3.Wikipedia- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_of_Socrates
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/socrates/socrates.HTM
4.No justice picture-http://www.carvedrecords.com/no-justice-at-okc-thunder-game/
5.Trial of Socrates Picture-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_of_Socrates