Podcasts · Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle: The Thinkers Who Changed History — Fexingo History

The Trial of Socrates: Politics and Prejudice in Ancient Athens

28 Jul 2026 · 6:24 · S4 E181

We go back to 399 BC Athens, where Socrates faces trial on charges of impiety and corrupting the youth. But the real story is political: a city traumatized by the Peloponnesian War, the brutal oligarchy of the Thirty Tyrants, and the restored democracy's anxious search for stability. Lucas walks us through the accusers—Meletus the poet, Anytus the tanner, Lycon the orator—and their complex motives. We hear about the unusual procedures of an Athenian trial, the narrow vote of 280 to 221, and Socrates' defiant counter-proposal to be fed at state expense. Then the sacred ship to Delos, the long delay, and the final hours in the prison cell as Plato's Phaedo describes them. This isn't just a story of a philosopher's death; it's a window into Athenian democracy's fragile conscience and how a single verdict shaped Western thought for millennia.

#Socrates #AthenianTrial #Meletus #Anytus #Lycon #Apology #Phaedo #PeloponnesianWar #ThirtyTyrants #AncientAthens #GreekPhilosophy #Hemlock #Prytaneum #Delos #Democracy #FexingoHistory #History #ClassicalGreece

Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo

Links in the notes 1

• https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo