Memories Of Socrates — Xenophon

In 399 BCE Socrates was tried in Athens on charges of irreligion and corruption of the young convicted and sentenced to death Like Plato an almost exact contemporary in his youth Xenophon c 430 c 354 BCE was one of the circle of mainly upper class young Athenians attracted to Socrates teaching His Memorabilia is both a passionate defence of Socrates against those charges and a kaleidoscopic picture of the man he knew painted in a series of mini dialogues and shorter vignettes with a varied and deftly characterized cast entitled and ambitious young men atheists and hedonists artists and artisans Socrates own stroppy teenage son Lamprocles the glamorous courtesan Theodote Topics given Socrates characteristic questioning treatment include education law justice government political and military leadership democracy and tyranny friendship care of the body and the soul and concepts of the divine Xenophon sees Socrates as above all a supreme moral educator coaxing and challenging his associates to make themselves better people not least by the example of how he lived his own life Self knowledge leading to a reasoned self control was for Socrates the essential first step on the path to virtue and some found it uncomfortable The Apology is a moving account of Socrates behaviour and bearing in his last days immediately before during and after his trial