Athens Tries and Executes Socrates
A jury convicts a 70-year-old philosopher of impiety and corrupting the young, and he drinks the hemlock rather than flee
Quick facts
- Year of trial and death
- 399 BCE
- Formal charges
- Impiety and corrupting the youth
- Method of execution
- Drinking hemlock
- Primary accounts
- Plato's Apology/Crito/Phaedo; Xenophon's Apology
What happened
In 399 BCE an Athenian jury tried Socrates on formal charges that he failed to recognize the gods the city recognized, introduced new divinities of his own, and corrupted the young through his teaching and questioning. He was convicted and sentenced to death. Rather than accept exile or escape, an option his friends offered him, Socrates accepted the sentence and was executed by drinking hemlock, choosing to honor what he took to be his obligations to the laws of Athens over his own survival.
Why it matters
The trial turned Socrates's death into a founding scene for Western philosophy: a thinker executed by his own city for the practice of relentless questioning became, through Plato's account, the model of philosophical integrity under political pressure, and the episode has been read ever since as a test case for the tension between free inquiry and civic order.
How we know
The trial and execution are described in detail in Plato's Apology, Crito, and Phaedo, and independently in Xenophon's Apology and Memorabilia, giving two separate ancient sources for the core facts, though the two authors present different versions of Socrates's courtroom speech.
Sources
- Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Socrates · Reputable sourceiep.utm.edu · The domain "iep.utm.edu" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Socrates · Reputable sourceplato.stanford.edu · The domain "plato.stanford.edu" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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