Apology

Although Socrates was formally charged with impiety and corrupting the youth, the historical context surrounding his trial suggests that these are proxy crimes for more serious offenses. Between 431 and 404 BCE, Athens fought the costly Peloponnesian War against neighboring Sparta. Upon Sparta’s victory in 404 BCE, Spartan admiral Lysander installed a puppet government of Spartan sympathizers to lead Athens. These oligarchs came to be known as the Thirty Tyrants due to their brutal tactics, which included massacring 5% of the Athenian population, exiling countless others, and unlawfully seizing property.

Most ardent supporters of the old Athenian democracy—that is, those who weren’t executed or forced into exile—opted to exile themselves as they plotted to retake their government. Socrates, however, chose to remain in Athens during the Tyrants’ eight-month reign of terror, causing many to label him complicit in the oligarchy’s atrocities. In part, this is why Socrates is quick to point out that he explicitly refused the Tyrants’ orders to retrieve General Leon of Salamis for an unjust execution, an act that could have gotten him killed. Nevertheless, many still held Socrates responsible for the bloodshed caused by the Tyrants, in large part because one of the group’s leaders, Critias, was a student of Socrates’s.