wards him, making the chances of them convicting him even greater. The divine sign remained silent throughout the entire process of the trial meaning that he was doing exactly what he was supposed to be doing. There was no opposition when Socrates left his home at dawn, when he entered the court, and none whatsoever during any part of his speech (15). Showing, in Socrates opinion that the gods wanted him to be doing exactly what he was doing. Socrates did not let his age become a factor in the trail, because he wanted to stick to the facts of the case. At the time of his trial, Socrates was seventy years old. Why did his prosecutors wait until then to bring up charges if he had always been an atheist and been corrupting the youth for quite some time. The reason was that he had only recently made enemies of groups in charge of prosecuting him and the trail was their revenge for his belittling them. His age was not emphasized until he received the death penalty though, because Socrates did not want to use it as an excuse. Then Socrates scolded his condemners, reminding them that he is "advanced in years and close to death." "If you had waited but a little while, this would have happened of its own accord"(14). Why did Socrates not flee, to avoid this penalty that he himself had predicted, and live out what remaining years he had in peace. He did it to show the point of what kind of man he was. Socrates embarrassed people, he made people think, he spoke his mind to people and he might have been even rude to people. But was that any reason to try him on bogus charges and to condemn him to death. Socrates was like a rebel for his times because he did not keep quiet he spoke his mind and asked others to do the same, without thinking of the consequences. Socrates death should have been expected because most people who advocate change are murdered. But his death definitely was not deserved. Word Count: 1047 Submit your paper ...
