Platonis Apologia Socratis

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Платон. Platonis Apologia Socratis

THE APOLOGY

PARS I

PARS II

PARS III

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Socrates' death took place in the month of May, 399 B.C., when he was more than 70 years of age (Apol. 17 D. Crito 52 E). The interval between the trial and his death was very long, – thirty days altogether. The indictment against Socrates was as follows: "Socrates is guilty of crime, first for not worshipping the gods whom the city worships, but introducing new divinities of his own; next, for corrupting the youth. The penalty due is death."

The accusers of Socr. were three: Meletus, Anytus, and Lyco: see espec. Apol. 23 E. Meletus is also mentioned by Plato in the Euthyphro 2 BC as ἀνὴρ νέος καὶ ἀγνὼς, τετανόθριξ καὶ οὐ πάνυ εὐγένειος, ἐπίγρυπος δέ,1 and in the Apology also Socr. speaks of him as an insignificant young man. Meletus, however, presented the indictment which was hung up in the portico before the office of the ἄρχων βασιλεύς (hence περὶ τὴν τοῦ βασιλέως στοάν Euth. 2 A).2 According to the Schol. on Apol. 18, Meletus was τραγῳδίας φαῦλος ποιητής,3 a statement also made by the Schol. on Aristoph. Frogs 1302: but it seems certain that we have here an error on the part of the Scholiasts who were led by Plato's words ὑπὲρ τῶν ποιητῶν ἀχθόμενος to identify the accuser of Socr. with the poet mentioned by Aristophanes l. c., where he says that Euripides borrowed a good deal of his poetry, – though this identification is absolutely impossible on account of the difference of time, as the Meletus mentioned by Aristoph. could not have been a young man in 399, even supposing that he was still alive. We know nothing more about Meletus, the accuser of Socr., from other sources, but it is possible that he was the son of the Meletus mentioned by Arist., in which case we should also gain an explanation of the motive which Plato assigns for his share in the indictment of Socr.

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ΠΡΟΟΙΜΙΟΝ (exordium) 17–18 A: discarding all the usual rhetorical embellishments, Socr. is going to address the judges in simple, homely words, and say nothing but the truth; at the same time he begs a favorable attention to this unusual kind of speech.

ΠΡΟΘΕΣΙΣ (propositio) 18 B–19 A: Socr. has to refute a double kind of accusation, viz., besides the one brought against him by Meletus, the popular prejudices raised against him and kept up by the charges of his enemies.

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