Apology of Socrates

Introduction

In the spring of 399 BC Socrates of Athens, then seventy years old, stood trial before a jury of 501 citizens. He was charged with not believing in the gods of the city, introducing new divine powers, and corrupting the young. He was found guilty and condemned to death; a month later he drank the hemlock.

The Apology is Plato's account of the speeches Socrates made at his trial. The title does not mean an apology in the modern sense: the Greek apologia is a speech of defence. Plato was in court that day — he names himself among Socrates' friends — and he wrote the work within a few years of his teacher's death.

It consists of three speeches. In the first and longest, Socrates answers the old rumours about him and the formal charges, cross-examines his accuser Meletus, and explains the mission that has shaped his life: to test those who think they are wise, and to urge every citizen to care for wisdom, truth and the soul before money and reputation. After the verdict he proposes, in place of a penalty, that he be honoured as a benefactor of the city. After the death sentence he speaks to the jurors who condemned him and to those who voted for him, and reflects calmly on death.

Few books so short have mattered so much. Here are some of the founding sayings of philosophy: that the wisest of men is the one who knows that he does not know; that it is worse to do wrong than to suffer it; that no evil can befall a good man; and that the unexamined life is not worth living for a human being. The Apology is the best first book for anyone coming to Plato, and to philosophy itself.

This translation is made from the Greek text of John Burnet's Oxford edition. The numbers in the margin (17a, 17b …) are the Stephanus references used in every edition and translation of Plato, so that any passage can be found and cited.