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 SOCRATES
was the son of Sophroniscus, an Athenian sculptor of eminence.
His parents were poor: his mother, Phoenaretê, practised
as a midwife. He fought as an infantry soldier in many of the
campaigns of the Peloponnesian wars, and distinguished himself
by resolute courage, coolness in danger, and astonishing endurance
of cold, heat, and hunger. Contemporary writers and sculptors
have given us vivid impressions of his strong, thickset frame,
and his plain, almost uncouth features. But when he spoke, men
said, is was as though one of the old statues of Silenus had
opened, and an image of some beautiful god had revealed itself
within.
He followed his father's profession for some years, and a
draped group of the Graces executed by him was preserved in the
Acropolis for many centuries. But the greater part of his life
was spent in philosophical conversation with his fellow-citizens,
held at street corners, in the markets, the gymnastic grounds,
and in all places of public resort. His whole day was usually
spent in this public manner. He talked with any one, young or
old, rich or poor, who sought to address him, and in the hearing
of all who chose to stand by; not only he neither asked nor received
any rewards, but he made no distinction of persons, never withheld
his conversation from any one, and talked upon the same general
topics to all. These conversations were on every subject affecting
human life--justice, courage, temperance, and all the duties
and relations of a citizen. His reputation grew, and people came
from distant Grecian cities to hear him talk. In the story of
his own life, which he told at the close of it, he says that
one of his friends, Chærephon, put the question to the
Oracle at Delphi, Whether any other man was wiser than Socrates?
The answer given was that there was none wiser. Not being conscious
of the possession of wisdom, Socrates was perplexed, till at
last, after testing the supposed knowledge of many distinguished
men, he interpreted the reply of the oracle as meaning that whereas
other men thought they knew, he was one of the few conscious
of their own ignorance. From this time he gave himself up more
sedulously to the work of convincing men by cross-examination
as to the vagueness of their knowledge on those things which
it was most important for them to know, the things relating not
to each man's special trade or profession, but to that which
was common to all--the conduct of life.
Beginning with familiar conversation on any matter of passing
interest, he led his companion to an attempt at defining the
subject which he wished to examine, as justice, courage, or temperance;
he then asked questions to test his answer, and so brought him
to see that his definition was imperfect, including some things
that had nothing to do with the matter, excluding others that
were essential; a second and third attempt was then made, to
be followed up in the like way. Aristotle remarks that Socrates
was the first thinker who paid attention to accurate definitions.
The process stimulated thought in many ways; and by his friend
and disciple, Plato, it was applied to every subject of intellectual
research. But Socrates discouraged speculation upon all subjects
that had not a direct and practical bearing upon man's action
and duty.
He believed himself to be under the guidance of an inner voice,
which habitually restrained him from this or that course of action
in which he would otherwise have engaged. It forbade him, for
instance, to enter into the ordinary contests of political life.
Again, when he was put upon his trial, the voice dissuaded him
from preparing an elaborate defense. He spoke of this habitually
in familiar conversation; and it lent colour afterwards to the
accusations of his enemies that he was making innovations in
the established religion. He was, nevertheless, scrupulously
careful in conforming to all recognized rites and ceremonies,
and in exhorting men to reverence the gods. He appears to have
held no public office till his sixty-third year. In that year
he took his place as one of the fifty senators taken by lot from
the tribe Antiochis. It so happened that the senators of this
tribe had the task of presiding over the popular assembly on
a very important occasion. Certain generals, who had gained a
great naval victory over the Spartans of Arginusæ, were
accused of having neglected to rescue the drowning soldiers on
their own side. Great popular excitement arose; a proposition
was made to the assembly to set aside the regular formalities
prescribing that each accused person should be separately tried
before sworn jurors, and to leave it to a vote of the people
there assembled whether these generals should be condemned to
death. It was for the presiding senators to put this question
to the vote; Socrates, undeterred by threats of sharing the fate
of the accused, stood alone in refusing to be a party to the
illegality, and the vote was carried against his solemn protest.
Not less courageous was his conduct when the oligarchy known
as the Thirty Tyrants had established themselves in Athens.
A life spent in convincing his fellow-citizens of the fallacies
underlying their most cherished prejudices, and of the hollowness
of many established reputations, could not fail to have made
dangerous enemies. He had taken no part in popular politics,
and some of those who most courted his society--for he turned
no one away--had been unprincipled men, like Critias and Alcibiades,
who had done the State much harm. It was probably a mixture of
personal and political resentment that an indictment was brought
against him by Meletus and two others, in these terms: "Socrates
is guilty of crime; first, for not worshipping the gods whom
the city worships, but introducing new divinities of his own;
secondly, for corrupting the youth. The penalty due is death."
The trial was conducted by a body of sworn jurors, 557 in
number. The defense made by Socrates has been preserved by Plato.
He tells the story of his life from the beginning; explains his
mission of leading all who came in contact with him to examine
their own lives and principles of action. If the court acquits
him, he will have no desire but to begin the same life again.
To cease it would be to incur the guilt of irreligion: disobedience
to the mandate of the gods. "As for the penalty of death,
no man," he said, "knows what it is, yet men fear it
as though they knew it to be the greatest of all evils. This
is how men show their ignorance, pretending to know what they
do not know. For my part, knowing nothing of Hades, I pretend
to no such knowledge; but I do know well that disobedience to
a better person than myself, whether God or man, is an evil and
a shame; and I will not embrace certain evil, in order to escape
from one which, for aught I know, may be a good."
He was pronounced guilty by a majority of six votes. It was
the custom that a second vote should be taken as to the penalty
to be inflicted. And the accused person had the right of proposing
some minor penalty as an alternative. When Socrates was asked
to do this, he said: "I have no private fortune, though,
perhaps, my friends, if I appealed to them, could help me. But
if I am asked what my life and conduct deserve, I reply that
maintenance at the public expense, as a benefactor to the State,
is the right recompence for one who has given up his own fortune,
and embraced voluntary poverty, for the sake of the improvement
of his fellow citiizens." As might be expected, the penalty
of death was decreed, and was carried out a few weeks afterwards,
in the way customary at Athens, by poison.
The life of Socrates is known to us from the writings of his
two disciples, the soldier Xenophon and the philosopher Plato.
Of the two, Xenophon is the more accurate. Plato puts his own
thoughts into the mouth of Socrates, working them out by his
master's method of question and answer. Xenophon's memoir is
a simple statement of what he remembers Socrates to have said.
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| This biography is
reprinted from The New Calendar of Great Men. Ed. Frederic
Harrison. London: Macmillan and Co., 1920. |
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