Apology — Plato

Picture defending yourself in a courtroom with no lawyer, in front of hundreds of ordinary citizens who will vote the same day on whether you live or die. Most people would cry, plead and promise to change. A seventy-year-old man in Athens did the opposite: he explained, calmly and even cheekily, why the city should be thanking him. Why would anyone argue that way when his life was on the line — and what does it teach a future advocate?

In two minutes

Plato’s Apology is his account of Socrates’ defence at his trial in Athens in 399 BCE on charges of corrupting the youth and impiety: he answers the charges by reason rather than pleading, is convicted and sentenced to death, and argues that a good man has nothing to fear from death.

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