In the ancient society of Athens, philosophers, sophists, and scholars were perceived as arrogant, pompous individuals whose teachings challenged the political and social principles of Athens. At this time the Athenians had gone through a transition from leading in complete supremacy to their ruinous decline by the defeat of Sparta and its allies in the Peloponnesian War. This defeat left them vulnerable and scared for what was to come in the rebuilding of their polis. In 399 BC a period of when Athens attempted to stabilize and recover, the philosopher Socrates was tried and executed consequently due to his suspicions of corrupting the youth through non traditional, philosophical, and anti-democratic teachings, which ultimately threatened the Athenian democracy once more.
Some thought that Socrates’ criticizing and downgrading
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Later as said by Xenophon “Critias became the biggest thief and the most violent and murderous of all those among the Thirty Tyrants, while Alcibiades became, for his part, the most irresponsible and high-handed and arrogant of all those in the democracy” (9). This was significant because as mentioned before the Athenians had grown to be fearful of another trying to tear down their long built government system. It was a fact that Socrates admitted to never directly teaching Alcibiades and Critias, however, he never denied communicating with them, therefore this gave Aeschines the authority to believe that it should strongly be used as reasonable evidence (2). Socrates was held accountable for this because the majority of the jury was convinced that his effects on Alcibiades and Critias vastly contributed to the destruction of