Editing Trial of Socrates (section)

===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>