Athens in the Age of Socrates

Socrates (469–399 BCE) lived through both the peak and the crisis of Athenian democracy, and his philosophy cannot be understood apart from that setting. Under Pericles, Athens grew rich from its empire, built the Parthenon and attracted artists, Sophists and philosophers. Every adult male citizen could speak in the Assembly, and large citizen juries decided court cases, so public argument mattered enormously.

Then came the Peloponnesian War against Sparta (431–404 BCE), a devastating plague in 430 BCE that killed Pericles, and eventual defeat. In 404 BCE Sparta installed the Thirty Tyrants, a brutal oligarchy, before democracy was restored in 403 BCE with an amnesty for past political crimes. Several of the Thirty, including Critias, had spent time with Socrates, and so had the controversial general Alcibiades. This troubled history helps explain why Athenians in 399 BCE viewed a man who questioned everything with suspicion.