Athens in 399 BC

To understand why Socrates was put on trial, you need to know something about the city he lived in.

Athens in the fifth century BC was the most powerful and culturally rich city in the Greek world. It had a democratic government, which was unusual and even radical for its time. Citizens voted on laws and elected their leaders. The arts flourished. Playwrights, sculptors, historians, and philosophers all worked in Athens at the same time.

Socrates was born in Athens around 470 BC. His father was a stonemason and his mother was a midwife. He served as a soldier in several military campaigns and was known for his courage. He never wrote anything down. Everything we know about him comes from other people's accounts, primarily the dialogues written by his student Plato.

The Athens that Socrates lived in was not stable. In 431 BC, a long and devastating war began between Athens and Sparta, called the Peloponnesian War. It lasted nearly thirty years. Athens lost. The defeat was humiliating and traumatic for the city.

In 404 BC, after Athens surrendered, a group of thirty men called the Thirty Tyrants seized control of the city with Spartan backing. They ruled through violence and fear, executing or exiling hundreds of citizens. Socrates refused to cooperate with them and nearly died for it. The Thirty were eventually overthrown and democracy was restored, but the city remained shaken and suspicious.

It was into this fragile, wounded Athens that Socrates was brought to trial in 399 BC. The city wanted stability. It wanted unity. It did not want someone going around asking uncomfortable questions about justice and wisdom and whether the people in charge actually knew what they were doing.

That is the world of the Apology. Keep it in mind as you read.