Socrates

Socrates is born in 469 B.C. and lives until 399 B.C. He drinks poisonous hemlock at the age of seventy in 399 B.C. Critias is the uncle of Plato and studies under Socrates. Like his pupil Critias, Socrates is an aristocrat. He is considered the intellectual leader of the rich man's revolution against democracy. He is a bald, large, round-faced homely man with deep-set staring eyes and a broad nose. Socrates has an ungainly walk and wearing a rumpled tunic makes it more obvious. He neglects his children and wife. Xanthippe his wife calls him a good for nothing idler. Socrates does not work and is often invited to dinner by disciples. Socrates has a kind and unassuming simplicity. He is beloved by his students and calls himself a seeker of wisdom with no claims to own it. He gathers about himself a mixed group of young, learned...