The fact that one of those who assisted in the prosecution of Socrates and spoke against him—Anytus—was a prominent democratic leader makes it all the more likely that worries about the future of Athenian democracy lay behind Socrates’ trial. And even if neither Anytus nor the other prosecutors (Meletus and Lycon) harboured such fears, it is hard to believe that they were entirely absent from the minds of those who heard his case. In any event, because Socrates openly displayed his antidemocratic ideas in his defense speech, it would have been difficult for jurors to set aside his association with opponents of the democracy, even if they had been inclined to do so. Athenian democracy must have seemed extremely fragile in 399. It is only with the benefit of hindsight that we can see that its institutions were strong enough to last most of the rest of the 4th century.
It is not known with certainty whether those who prosecuted Socrates mentioned Alcibiades and Critias at his trial—there is no record of their speeches, and it is difficult to interpret the evidence about what they did say. But it is very likely that specific names were mentioned. In Plato’s Apology, Socrates notes that his accusers alleged of certain individuals that they were his students, an accusation he lamely denies on the grounds that, because he has never undertaken to teach anyone, he cannot have had students. Furthermore, Xenophon reports in Memorabilia that, according to “the accuser,” Alcibiades and Critias were followers of Socrates. The word accuser is taken by some scholars to be a reference to one of the three persons who spoke against Socrates in 399, though others take Xenophon to be defending Socrates against charges made against him in a pamphlet written several years later by Polycrates, a teacher of rhetoric. In any event, many years later, in the 4th century, the orator Aeschines, in his speech “Against Timarchus,” asserted in public that Socrates was convicted because he was “shown to have been the teacher of Critias, one of the thirty who had overthrown the democracy.”
But even if Socrates’ association with Critias and Alcibiades was an important factor leading to his trial and conviction, it certainly was not the only ingredient of the case against him, nor even the most important one. The law that Socrates was alleged to have violated was a law against impiety, and the thrust of his defense, as presented by Plato, was that his life has been consumed by his single-minded devotion to the god. The Socrates who speaks to us in Plato’s Apology has no doubt that the charge of impiety against him must be refuted. There is no reason to suspect that this charge was a mere pretext and that what Socrates was really being prosecuted for was his antidemocratic associations and ideas. The political background of his trial is important because it helps to explain why he was not prosecuted in the 430s or 420s or at any other time of his life. Everything known about him indicates that he was the same man, and lived the same sort of life, in 399 and in 423, the year of Clouds. What made him the object of prosecution in 399, after so many years during which his behaviour was tolerated, was a change in political circumstances. But it remains the case, according to the Socrates of Apology, that his alleged religious unorthodoxy was deeply worrying to his prosecutors and jurors. That is why this allegation receives all his attention. The Athenian ideal of free speech
That Socrates was prosecuted because of his religious ideas and political associations indicates how easily an ideal held dear by his fellow Athenians—the ideal of open and frank speech among citizens—could be set aside when they felt insecure. This ideal and its importance in Athens are well illustrated by the remark of the orator Demosthenes, that in Athens one is free to praise the Spartan constitution, whereas in Sparta it is only the Spartan constitution that one is allowed to praise. Were there other instances, besides the trial of Socrates, in which an Athenian was prosecuted in court because of the dangerous ideas he was alleged to have circulated? Centuries after Socrates’ death, several writers alleged that many other intellectual figures of his time—including Protagoras, Anaxagoras, Damon, Aspasia, and Diagoras—were exiled or prosecuted. Several scholars have concluded that Athens’s allegiance to the ideal of freedom of speech was deeply compromised during the last decades of the 5th century. Others have argued that much or all of the evidence for a period of persecution and harassment was invented by writers who wanted to claim, as a badge of honour for their favourite philosophers, that they, too, like the universally admired Socrates, had been persecuted by the Athenians. What can safely be said is this: the trial of Socrates is the only case in which we can be certain that an Athenian was legally prosecuted not for an overt act that directly harmed the public or some individual—such as treason, corruption, or slander—but for alleged harm indirectly caused by the expression and teaching of ideas.
According to Plato’s Apology, the vote to convict Socrates was very close: had 30 of those who voted for conviction cast their ballots differently, he would have been acquitted. (So he was convicted by a majority of 59. Assuming, as many scholars do, that the size of his jury was 501, 280 favoured conviction and 221 opposed it.) It is reasonable to speculate that many of those who opposed conviction did so partly because, however little they cared for what Socrates thought and how he lived, they cherished the freedom of speech enjoyed by all Athenians and attached more importance to this aspect of their political system than to any harm Socrates may have done in the past or might do in the future. The Athenian love of free speech allowed Socrates to cajole and criticize his fellow citizens for the whole of his long life but gave way—though just barely—when it was put under great pressure. Plato’s Apology
Although in none of Plato’s dialogues is Plato himself a conversational partner or even a witness to a conversation, in the Apology Socrates says that Plato is one of several friends in the audience. In this way Plato lets us know that he was an eyewitness of the trial and therefore in the best possible position to write about it. The other account we have of the trial, that of Xenophon, a contemporary of Socrates, is of a very different character. We know that Xenophon was not present as a live witness. He tells his readers that he is reporting only a portion of Socrates’ speech and that he learned about the trial from Hermogenes, a member of the Socratic circle.
The Death of Socrates, oil on canvas by Jacques-Louis David, 1787; in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.Art Media/Heritage-Images/Imagestate
It is not surprising, then, that there are significant differences between Plato’s and Xenophon’s accounts of what was said at the trial. (Xenophon, for example, dwells on the troubles of old age from which Socrates is escaping by being condemned to death, whereas Plato barely alludes to Socrates’ age.) Of greater importance is the fact that the two Apologys agree in many details. They agree about what the charges against Socrates were: failing to acknowledge the gods recognized by the city, introducing other new divinities, and corrupting the young. They also agree that Meletus supported his accusation by referring to a divine voice or sign that Socrates claimed as his personal guide; that Socrates acknowledged the guidance of this divine sign in his speech; that part of Socrates’ defense consisted of a cross-examination of Meletus; that Socrates referred to an inquiry made by his friend, Chaerephon, to the Delphic oracle; that the response of the oracle confirmed that a unique status had been conferred upon Socrates by the gods; that, having been found guilty, Socrates refused to propose a punishment that the jury would find acceptable; and that, after the jury voted in favour of the death penalty, he once again addressed the jury and expressed no regrets for his manner of living or the course of his trial. There is no reason to suppose that Xenophon had learned of these aspects of the trial from Plato. His agreement with Plato about these matters assures us that they are not fabrications.