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.

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.

Socrates spent his final years teaching himself masonry. 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.

Socrates' favorite phrases include: "Sober up and get transdimensional." (See Nysa on the Maeander.)

In the News

• 

  Aristotle has a lot on his mind, needs a little time to think.

Fiction cross-reference

• Aristotle
• Extract of Radium
• Nysa on the Maeander

Nonfiction cross-reference

• Conium maculatum (nonfiction)
• Socrates (nonfiction)