Editing Trial of Socrates (section)

===Association with Alcibiades and the Thirty Tyrants===
[[Alcibiades]] was an Athenian general who had been the main proponent of the disastrous [[Sicilian Expedition]] during the [[Peloponnesian Wars]], where virtually the entire Athenian invading force of more than 50,000 soldiers and non-combatants (e.g., the rowers of the [[Trireme]]s) was killed or captured and enslaved. He was a student and close friend of Socrates, and his messmate during the siege of Potidaea (433–429 BC). Socrates remained Alcibiades's close friend, admirer, and mentor for about five or six years.<ref name="Waterfield"/> 

His complex friendship with Socrates was put on display during Alcibiades' speech at the Symposium, where he both praised Socrates and also disclosed his emotional turmoil and humiliation because of his personal desires. Alcibiades accused Socrates of arrogance during what he framed as a "trial", using the audience as a jury to judge Socrates' pride. Yet, Socrates remained silent, demonstrating the self-control that challenged Alcibiades' values. Alcibiades admitted this created an inner conflict, as Socrates' teachings inspired a shift in thinking toward focusing on one's inner character over their outward success. In this way, the "first trial" of Socrates serves as a powerful metaphor for the philosophical and personal challenges he posed to the traditional Athenian values, foreshadowing the tensions that would later lead to his formal trial.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hole |first=George T. |date=2017 |title=The First Trial of Socrates |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/663815#info_wrap |journal=Philosophy and Literature |volume=41 |issue=1 |pages=1–15 |issn=1086-329X}}</ref> 

During his career, Alcibiades famously defected to Sparta, arch-enemy of Athens, after being summoned to trial, then to Persia after being caught in an affair with the wife of his benefactor (the King of Sparta). He then defected back to Athens after successfully persuading the Athenians that Persia would come to their aid against Sparta (though Persia had no intention of doing so). Finally driven out of Athens after the defeat of the [[Battle of Notium]] against Sparta, Alcibiades was assassinated in [[Phrygia]] in 400 BC by his Spartan enemies.

Another possible source of resentment was the political views that he and his associates were thought to have embraced. [[Critias]], who appears in two of Plato's Socratic dialogues, was a leader of the [[Thirty Tyrants]] (the ruthless [[oligarchy|oligarchic]] regime that ruled Athens, as puppets of Sparta and backed by Spartan troops, for eight months in 404–403 BC until they were overthrown). Several of the Thirty had been students of Socrates, but there is also a record of their falling out.<ref>Xenophon. ''Memorabilia'', 1.2.29–38.</ref>

As with many of the issues surrounding Socrates's conviction, the nature of his affiliation with the Thirty Tyrants is far from straightforward. During the reign of the Thirty, many prominent Athenians who were opposed to the new government left Athens. Robin Waterfield asserts that "Socrates would have been welcome in oligarchic Thebes, where he had close associates among the [[Pythagoreans]] who flourished there, and which had already taken in other exiles."<ref name=Waterfield/>{{Rp|183}} Given the availability of a hospitable host outside of Athens, Socrates, at least in a limited way, chose to remain in Athens. Thus, Waterfield suggests, Socrates's contemporaries probably thought his remaining in Athens, even without participating in the Thirty's bloodthirsty schemes, demonstrated his sympathy for the Thirty's cause, not neutrality towards it. This is proved, Waterfield argues, by the fact that after the Thirty were no longer in power, anyone who had remained in Athens during their rule was encouraged to move to [[Eleusis]], the new home of the expatriate Thirty.<ref name=Waterfield/> Socrates did oppose the will of the Thirty on one documented occasion. Plato's ''Apology'' has the character of Socrates describe that the Thirty ordered him, along with four other men, to fetch a man named [[Leon of Salamis]] so that the Thirty could execute him. While Socrates did not obey this order, he did nothing to warn Leon, who was subsequently apprehended by the other four men.<ref>Plato. ''Apology'', 32c.</ref>