Editing Trial of Socrates (section)

==Interpretations of the trial of Socrates==
===Ancient===
In the time of the trial of Socrates, the year 399 BC,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Background Of The Trial|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Socrates/Background-of-the-trial |website=[[Britannica]]}}</ref> the city-state of [[Classical Athens|Athens]] recently had endured the trials and tribulations of Spartan [[hegemony]] and the 13-month régime of the [[Thirty Tyrants]], which had been imposed consequently to the Athenian defeat in the [[Peloponnesian War]] (431–404 BC). At the request of [[Lysander]], a Spartan admiral, the Thirty men, led by [[Critias]] and [[Theramenes]], were to administer Athens and revise the city's democratic laws, which were inscribed on a wall of the [[Stoa Basileios]]. Their actions were to facilitate the transition of the Athenian government from a [[democracy]] to an [[oligarchy]] in service to [[Sparta]].<ref name="2.3.15–16">Xenophon, [[Hellenica (Xenophon)|''Hellenica'']], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Xen.+Hell.+2.3.15&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0206 2.3.15–16]</ref>

Moreover, the Thirty Tyrants also appointed a council of 500 men to perform the judicial functions that once had belonged to every Athenian citizen.<ref name=AC35.1>{{cite web| url = http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/athenian_const.html| title = Aristotle, ''Athenian Constitution'', 35.1 (350 BC).}}</ref><ref>Krentz, Peter. ''The Thirty at Athens'' p. 50. ({{ISBN|0801414504}})</ref> In their brief régime, the pro-Spartan oligarchs killed about five percent of the Athenian population, confiscated much property, and exiled [[Athenian democracy|democrats]] from the city proper. The fact that Critias, leader of the Thirty Tyrants, had been a pupil of Socrates was held against him.<ref>Wolpert, Andrew. ''Remembering Defeat: Civil War and Civic Memory in Ancient Athens''. ({{ISBN|0-8018-6790-8}}).</ref><ref name="2.3.15–16"/>

[[Image:David - The Death of Socrates.jpg|right|thumb|''[[The Death of Socrates]]'' (1787), by [[Jacques-Louis David]]]]
Plato's presentation of the trial and death of Socrates inspired writers, artists, and philosophers to revisit the matter. For some, the execution of the man whom Plato called "the wisest and most just of all men" demonstrated the defects of [[democracy]] and of popular rule; for others, the Athenian actions were a justifiable defence of the recently re-established democracy.<ref>I.F. Stone. ''The Trial of Socrates'', 1988.</ref>

===Modern===
In ''The Trial of Socrates'' (1988), [[I. F. Stone]] argued that Socrates wanted to be sentenced to death, to justify his philosophic opposition to the Athenian democracy of that time, and because, as a man, he saw that old age would be an unpleasant time for him.

In the introduction to his play ''[[Socrates on Trial (play)|Socrates on Trial]]'' (2007), Andrew Irvine claimed that because of his loyalty to Athenian democracy, Socrates willingly accepted the guilty verdict voted by the jurors at his trial: 
{{blockquote|During a time of war, and great social and intellectual upheaval, Socrates felt compelled to express his views, openly, regardless of the consequences. As a result, he is remembered today, not only for his sharp wit and high ethical standards, but also for his loyalty to the view that, in a democracy, the best way for a man to serve himself, his friends, and his city{{snd}}even during times of war{{snd}}is by being loyal to, and by speaking publicly about the truth.<ref>{{cite book |last=Irvine |first=Andrew D.  |chapter=Introduction |title=Socrates on Trial |location=Toronto |publisher=University of Toronto Press |year=2008 |page=19}}</ref>}}

In ''Why Socrates Died: Dispelling the Myths'' (2009), [[Robin Waterfield]] wrote that the death of Socrates was an act of volition motivated by a greater purpose; Socrates "saw himself as healing the City's ills by his voluntary death".<ref name=Waterfield/>{{Rp|204}} Waterfield wrote that Socrates, with his unconventional methods of [[Intellectualism|intellectual]] enquiry, attempted to resolve the political confusion then occurring in the city-state of Athens, by willingly being the scapegoat, whose death would quiet old disputes, which then would allow the Athenian polis to progress towards political harmony and social peace.<ref name=Waterfield/>

In ''The New Trial of Socrates'' (2012), an international panel of ten judges held a [[Mock trial|mock re-trial]] of Socrates to resolve the matter of the charges levelled against him by [[Meletus]], [[Anytus]], and [[Apology (Plato)|Lycon]], that: "Socrates is a doer of evil and corrupter of the youth, and he does not believe in the gods of the state, and he believes in other new divinities of his own". Five judges voted guilty and five judges voted not guilty. Limiting themselves to the facts of the case against Socrates, the judges did not consider any sentence, but the judges who voted the philosopher guilty said that they would not have considered the death penalty for him.<ref>{{cite news|title=Socrates acquitted in ancient trial re-run |url=https://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gZNTTgYc0VcusOWcootqMJvuhAqw |agency=AFP |date=25 May 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140130161519/https://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gZNTTgYc0VcusOWcootqMJvuhAqw |archive-date=January 30, 2014 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120614034706/http://www.sgt.gr/en/programme/event/688 |url=http://www.sgt.gr/en/programme/event/688 |archive-date=2012-06-14 |title=The New Trial of Socrates |website=Onassis Cultural Centre}}</ref>

In ''The Shadows of Socrates: The Heresy, War, and Treachery behind the Trial of Socrates'' (2024), Matt Gatton offered a new perspective on the trial, based on his reconstruction archeological work that was published in the ''Oxford Handbook of Light in Archeology'' (2022).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gatton |first1=Matt |chapter=The Eleusinian Projector: The Hierophant's Optical Method of Conjuring the Goddess |title=Oxford Handbook of Light in Archeology |editor-first1=Costas |editor-last1=Papadopoulos |editor-first2=Holley |editor-last2=Moyes|date=9 March 2022 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780198788218 |url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-handbook-of-light-in-archaeology-9780198788218?cc=us&lang=en&# |access-date=April 27, 2024}}</ref> Gatton asserts that the impiety charge against Socrates stemmed from his searing critique of Athens’ most hallowed religious ritual—the [[Eleusinian Mysteries|Mysteries of Eleusis]]. He writes: "Trying to explain what happened to Socrates without talking about the Mysteries of Eleusis is like trying to explain what happened to Galileo without mentioning the Catholic Church."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gatton |first1=Matt |title=The Shadows of Socrates: The Heresy, War, and Treachery behind the Trial of Socrates |date=February 6, 2024 |location=New York |publisher=Pegasus |isbn=978-1639365821 |pages=xv |url=https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Shadows-of-Socrates/Matt-Gatton/9781639365821 |access-date=April 27, 2024}}</ref> Gatton agrees with prior authors that the corrupting the youth charge was the result of the ruinous actions of several of Socrates’ former students, most pointedly Alcibiades and Critias, but Gatton sees Alcibiades’ alleged profanation of the Mysteries of Eleusis as a significant factor. In this respect, both of the charges against Socrates are tied back to the same source.