SOURCE: "The Life and Death of Socrates," in The Cambridge Ancient History, edited by J. B. Bury, S. A. Cook, and F. E. Adcock, Cambridge University Press, 1935, pp. 386-97.

Below, Bury briefly surveys the life of Socrates as presented in the dialogues and Apology of Plato, highlighting some of the philosopher's most significant philosophical views in the process.

… The book of Xenophon on the life and teaching of Socrates, known as the Memorabilia, would, if it stood alone, give us little idea of what Socrates was like, and no idea of the secret of his greatness. Xenophon belonged (probably for a very short time) to the Socratic circle, but he had no notion of what philosophy really means and but a slight first-hand knowledge of the master. He produced a portrait such as a journalist with a commonplace mind might contribute to a gallery of 'good men,'...