Apology — Plato

The Apology of Socrates written by Plato is a Socratic dialogue of the speech of legal self defence which Socrates 469 399 BC spoke at his trial for impiety and corruption in 399 BC Specifically the Apology of Socrates is a defence against the charges of corrupting the youth and not be lieving in the gods in whom the city believes but in other daimonia that are novel to Athens Among the primary sources about the trial and death of the philosopher Socrates the Apology of Socrates is the dialogue that depicts the trial and is one of four Socratic dialogues along with Euthyphro Phaedo and Crito through which Plato details the final days of the philosopher Socrates

In what relation the Apology of Plato stands to the real defence of Socrates there are no means of determining It certainly agrees in tone and character with the description of Xenophon who says in the Memorabilia that Socrates might have been acquitted lsquo if in any moderate degree he would have conciliated the favour of the dicasts and who informs us in another passage on the testimony of Hermogenes the friend of Socrates that he had no wish to live and that the divine sign refused to allow him to prepare a defence and also that Socrates himself declared this to be unnecessary on the ground that all his life long he had been preparing against that hour For the speech breathes throughout a spirit of defiance ut non supplex aut reus sed magister aut dominus videretur esse judicum Cic de Orat and the loose and desultory style is an imitation of the lsquo accustomed manner in which Socrates spoke in lsquo the agora and among the tables of the money changers The allusion in the Crito may perhaps be adduced as a further evidence of the literal accuracy of some parts

Apology Tanıtm Bülteninden