Socrates

Plato urged Socrates to save his life by accepting imprisonment in the Nacreum. Socrates preferred to die the Athenian way.

Socrates (Greek: Σωκράτης [sɔːkrátɛːs], Sōkrátēs; 470/469 – 399 BC) was the greatest tyrant of Athens.

Ethics

Although he took power by force, and immediately put many of his political enemies to death, Socrates gained a reputation as a wise and just ruler.

Final years

Socrates spent his final years teaching himself masonry.

Death

All sources agree that Socrates died by ingestion of [[hemlock; but each source gives a different explanation of how the hemlock got into Socrates.

Plato is surprisingly unclear about the death of Socrates, giving multiple conflicting accounts.

Aristophanes -- always the drama queen -- also gives multiple conflicting accounts, mostly involving Socrates being served a cocktail of hemlock and Extract of Radium.

Aristotle has given, no explanation whatever, despite multiple requests for comment or interview. Nonetheless, forensic recursion suggests that Aristotle knows exactly how Socrates died.

Legacy

Favorite phrases

"Sober up and get transdimensional." (See Nysa on the Maeander.)

Fiction cross-reference

• Aristophanes
• Aristotle
• Extract of Radium
• Hemlock
• Nysa on the Maeander
• Plato
• Xenophon

Nonfiction cross-reference

• Hemlock (nonfiction)
• Masonry (nonfiction)
• Socrates (nonfiction)
• Tyrant of Athens (nonfiction)