Why Socrates Died: Dispelling the Myths

A superb little book that re creates the historical background of Socrates s trial for corrupting Greek youth in 399 B.C Author Robin Waterfield steps back and sketches in the events of the Peloponnesian War as they affected public opinion relating to the trial and sentencing of the Greek philosopher It appears that Socrates was extensively associated with Alcibiades, Critias, and other members of the oligarchic party that whether true or not were widely blamed for 1 Athens s loss to Sparta in t [...]

While we hear about a trial of the century every 10 or 12 years in this country, there are only two trials that command our attention after two millenniums One is the trial of Jesus before Pontius Pilate in Roman occupied Judea and the other the trial of Socrates about 400 years before in Athens, Greece The 2009 book Why Socrates Died Dispelling the Myths by Robin Waterfield looks at that second trial, a trial of the Greek philosopher by a jury of 500 people Waterfield, who lives on a farm in so [...]

Waterfield builds a strong case for the logical inevitability of Socrates trial and execution Set against a backdrop of civil war, loss of empire, and the murderous but blessedly brief reign of the 30 tyrants, Socrates lack of love for democracy, and close association with the oligarchs, left him looking like the enemy of a threatened people.In the course of a gallop through the Peloponnesian Wars, Waterfield shines a light on areas not covered by Thucydides, filling in many gaps for the reader [...]

I recently reread Plato s four death of Socrates dialogues Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo and wanted a bit historical background than I could glean from the Penguin introduction Waterfield s study, sub titled Dispelling the Myths, delivered exactly what it promised Waterfield places Socrates s trial in the perilous context of the recently lost Peloponnesian war and just overthrown tyranny of the Thirty Throughout his life Socrates had never bothered to hide his contempt for democracy Praised [...]

An enjoyable read, it narrates the socio political context leading to Socrates trial and execution in 399 BC Although the last chapter is a bit disappointing, it is well argued and documented The book argues that Socrates was condemned because he was a known critic of democracy and traditional values, and a teacher and close friend of impious oligarchs like Critias and Alcibiades A required reading for anyone interested in Greek history and philosophy.

I would recommend this book to both those who are not familiar with Socrates trial and those who want backstory into the time it took place The work was well written and the sources in the back of the work were excellent.

Excellent coverage of the second half of Athens war with Sparta and a complete picture of the career of Alcibiades The trial of Socrates is bracketted around the main thrust of the story stressing the effects of a generational conflict within Athens at that time.

Socrates is presented as a martyr and the scapegoat for Athens s sins during the Peloponnesian War, a willing scapegoat who had failed to achieve his political mission of renewing the city through training moral experts to be political leaders, and dangerously associated with the obviously blameworthy and infamous Alcibiades.

In a very manageable 204 pages, Waterfield s Why Socrates Died opens with Socrates trial and death by hemlock, then takes us into the backstory of the Peloponnesian War and the social changes wrought by Athens eventual defeat, and finally presents his theory of why Socrates stayed in Athens and accepted death when he could so easily have escaped.As I know very little of Socratic thought and ancient Greek history, this subject could easily have proved difficult to follow So I was impressed by the [...]

This is the sort of book I would ordinarily have enjoyed a good deal if I wasn t already somewhat familiar with the substance of its thesis Waterfield has an engaging authorial voice and does an excellent job providing fuller historical context for Socrates s arraignment, trial, and execution Treated in full here are not only the usual analyses of Plato s and Xenophon s respective failings as objective biographers among other primary source material , but summaries of the Pelopennesian War, a di [...]

For anyone who has read Xenophon s Retreat Greece, Persia the end of Golden age well he is in for a treat again with this book It s a riveting analogy of what might have happened, a very in depth analysis of the last days of the greatest philosopher ever His track of thought is that Socrates was a great philosopher very eccentric at the same time he believes that the much read theories of the last days of the great man was basically something his two illustrious students creation of a character [...]

It is a long while since I read this book and I may be too influenced by my memories of IF Stone s The Trial of Socrates but I do not recognize the book I read from the summary here Socrates died because he was anti democratic and associated with and encouraged young aristocratic men of anti democratic leanings, this at a time when the city had suffered horribly from the oligarchic dictatorships of the Four Hundred and the Thirty Socrates corruption of youth was to encourage them in attitudes th [...]

I admire the in debt knowledge of the author on all matters Greece during the turmoil of its misbegotten period of attempted empire building The title in reflection doesn t in my humble opinion reflect the content of the book The trial and death of Socrates is covered in the first few chapters and then the history lesson begins and continues pretty well for most of the book until Socrates is again brought up in the context of the aforementioned history I appreciate the thorough review of the hig [...]

This book about Socrates actually is much about Alcibiades and the fate of Athens during the Peloponnesian War Socrates is shown as deeply involved with the Athenian aristocrats and linked to the Thirty tyrants, choosing to stay in Athens after the turn back to democracy, and basically accepting his being a scapegoat to cleanse the Athenian democracy for it s errors that brought it down in the war against Sparta.I would be very interested in a Freudian perspective on the relation between Socrat [...]

Socrates is a fairly well known name in modern culture, but understanding what he actually did and the circumstances of his death are generally vague and not well understood In this book, Robin Waterfield investigates why Socrates died In doing so, he not only sets out there mere facts of what happened, but explains the context of the Greek culture and historical events that led to the culmination of the event in question I admit to getting somewhat lost in the midst of the names, but this is me [...]

This is the only book I ve read on the historical Socrates question, so I can t evaluate it professionally, but it was plausible and convincing Since part of the task of the book is to set up Socrates context, the book proves to be an excellent synopsis of the Peloponnesian War Waterfield s conclusions are similar to I F Stone s Socrates is far closer to Plato than the conventional wisdom suggests, and the motivation for prosecuting him is his association with, and advocacy of, oligarchic politi [...]

At first, I was a little hostile over how much care and research this man has done into the minutiae of ancient Athenian culture which does tend to happen when you read for a living and have to take special pains into how something is properly pronounced since it actually was all Greek to me However, when you realize the care and research it must ve taken for Waterfield to reconstruct what was going on in Athens at the time of Socrates life, you have to be impressed And, he tidies up all that mi [...]

This book attempts to unravel some of the seeming mystery behind the death of Socrates portrayed as so obviously unfair by our major sources Plato and Xenophon, both sympathetic to Socrates as to make any reasonable modern person find it hard to believe that such a thing could have happened Waterfield tries to examine as many of the facts as possible and not just rely on the traditional accounts in Plato and Xenophon to reconstruct the reasons why Athens in 399 B.C.E thought it necessary to put [...]

A look at the politics behind Socrates and his executiono many of his followers were involved in assassinations of democratic Athenians or opposed to the Athenian democracy.

This was an informative book, but it told me about ancient Greece and Athens than about Socrates It was not boring in the way it was narrated, though.

Only read the first part Didn t get onto the Alciabiades bit I ll probs give this another bash laters well written, a trifle worth perhaps.

Because it is never too early to start trying and inevitably failing to outsmart my next HIST 312 class

Really interesting and throughtful.

Really interesting look into why Socrates was so dangerous in his time Dude hated democracy, by the way.

Understanding of Athenian and modern Greek Law and what really happened before Socrates drank a cup of the poison hemlock.

Well written, well researched But truthfully, I read a few chapters, then found a good review on the net I got what I wanted out of the book in the summary.