Why Was Socrates Sentenced to Death?

Socrates is widely regarded as the father of Western philosophy. In ancient Greece, he encouraged people to ask questions and promoted critical thinking as a way for citizens to live more fulfilling lives. 

But Socrates’ years of philosophizing ultimately came at a great personal cost, leading to his death sentence. “The image we have, thousands of years later, is of this powerful civilization executing one of its most famous citizens,” says Matthew Landauer, associate professor of political science at the University of Chicago. “But you could also look at it from the perspective that he lived most of his life in democratic Athens happily philosophizing.”

Socrates lived between 469 and 399 B.C., almost entirely in Athens. As a youngster, he eagerly read the writings of philosopher Anaxagoras and learned his oratory skills from Aspasia, the mistress of Athenian leader Pericles. 

He was also a soldier before he made his name as a philosopher. “Most Athenians were not philosophers,” explains Paul Cartledge, professor of Greek culture at the University of Cambridge. “A citizen could go to the assembly, propose a motion and speak. Most just went to hear speakers making arguments on one side or another for moral and political philosophy.”

Socrates became part “of an intellectual tradition sometimes called the fifth-century Enlightenment,” says Cartledge. This was when a number of intellectuals—including Protagoras, Gorgias and Prodicus—came up with unconventional and radically original points of view regarding the relationship between humans and gods. “Socrates spends his whole life up until he’s an old man living in Athens and engaging in philosophical debates,” says Landauer. In 423 B.C., Socrates and his teachings were so well known in Athens that Aristophanes wrote the play "Clouds" to poke fun at him.

Socrates regularly challenged tradition and the way people talked about the gods. According to Cartledge, this frightened and perplexed ordinary citizens. “He would say that the gods should only be thought of as good and that they didn’t do anything bad. Whereas most Greeks believed that gods were just like them. They sometimes behaved well and sometimes behaved badly.”

In 406 B.C., Socrates became unpopular in Athens when he opposed the way a group of naval generals was to be tried after the Battle of Arginusae. Although the Athenians had won the battle, the generals were accused of failing to rescue shipwrecked sailors due to a storm. Serving at the time in a public role, Socrates argued that each general should be tried individually in the court of law, rather than condemned together by a vote of the assembly. Though he was overruled, his stance demonstrated his willingness to uphold the rule of law over popular pressure.

Three years later, under the oligarchic regime known as the Thirty Tyrants, Socrates was ordered to help arrest Leon of Salamis, a wealthy and respected citizen. According to Xenophon’s "Hellenica"—an account of late fifth-century Greece—the charge was baseless, as Leon “had not committed the shadow of a crime.” The regime wanted Socrates there so he would be guilty by association, says Landauer. Socrates refused the order, choosing to risk his own life rather than participate in what he saw as injustice.

Four other men carried out the arrest and Leon was put to death. The rule of the Thirty Tyrants collapsed before Socrates would face any punishment, but his reprieve was only temporary.

In 399 B.C., Socrates was put on trial for impiety and corrupting the youth through his philosophy and teachings. 

Socrates did not “behave or worship the gods in the way that most ordinary Athenians did," suggests Cartledge. “He was a bit of a risk and threat because he expressed these views. Plus, the people who supported him were anti-democratic.” Socrates was alleged to have been a friend and teacher to members of the Thirty Tyrants, says Cartledge. 

Socrates refuted the claims. He argued his method of questioning had actually saved the city. During his defense, Plato wrote that he famously declared “the unexamined life is not worth living.” Cartledge believes Socrates was rather relaxed about his potential death during the trial. “It’s not actually clear that he wants to get off. He felt, I think, that he’d lived a long and good life. He felt he was going to be fine because he didn’t believe in an afterlife.”

Even after he was found guilty, Socrates suggested he should be rewarded and given free meals for life, a prize usually reserved for winning Olympians, says Landauer. “He basically doesn’t give a serious response as an alternative to death...Which you could read as suicide as he isn’t giving the jury much choice.”

In his final days, Plato wrote that Socrates refused various offers of escape from Athens and “appeared both happy in manner and words as he died nobly and without fear.” Socrates died by drinking a mixture containing poison hemlock.

Socrates left no written works, but his philosophies were spread by his students Plato and Xenophon. They wrote lengthy accounts of his life and teachings that merged fact and fiction. “His main disciples defend him by writing imaginary, different speeches that he never actually delivered,” says Cartledge. “But they were the sort of things that Plato and Xenophon thought he should have said to get off the charges.”

In the "Apology," Plato’s account of the speech Socrates gave at the trial in 399 B.C., Plato makes Socrates out to be a figure who was “willing to speak truth to power and to pursue his arguments and reasonings even in the face of political persecution,” says Landauer. “That image is created more by Plato than Socrates.”

In the centuries following his death, Socrates' reputation grew because he had died for his principles. Benjamin Franklin showed his appreciation for the philosopher in his autobiography, writing that in order to show humility, people should “imitate Jesus and Socrates.” 

In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. referenced Socrates in his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” after being arrested in Alabama. King cited Socrates’ “civil disobedience" and “unswerving commitment to truth” as he sought to rally the Civil Rights Movement.