The Apology

Hermogenes asks Socrates why he is not preparing for his trial. “Have I not spent my whole life meditating my defence?” Socrates replies—and then explains why he may not want to win.

In Athens in 399 BC, as Socrates faces charges of impiety and corrupting the young, Xenophon recounts the trial through the memories of Hermogenes, one of the philosopher’s companions. Socrates insists that a life spent doing no wrong is his finest defence; a divine voice, he says, has even stopped him from planning what to say. With old age looming and the court before him, he meets his accusers not with a plea for mercy but with questions, arguments, and startling self-assurance. What happens when Socrates refuses to ask the judges for the one thing they can grant him?

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