orrupted to testify, though many were present at the trial, none came forward. Because of this, Socrates believed that he had not corrupted others, for if he had, they would surely seek revenge and be glad to testify against him, given the chance. Socrates truly felt that people enjoyed listening to his stories and spending time with him. He claimed that it was never his intention to teach anyone, only to discuss issues with those who cared to listen. Socrates was also accused of being an atheist, or one who does not believe in a god. This indictment was contradicted as the elderly man justified to the court his belief in spirits and other gods. He said it was not possible for a man to believe in divine things and spiritual things, as he did, and yet, not in gods and spirits and heroes. In other words, Socrates said that the belief in qualities implied the existence of those things to which the qualities corresponded. To further illustrate this idea, he used an example involving horsemanship, or the quality of riding horses well. If this quality existed, then horses must also exist since horsemanship would not be possible without them. Therefore, if Socrates believed in spirits, as Meletos's affidavit affirmed, he must have also believed in spiritual beings, or gods, as well. And because he did, Socrates could not have been an atheist after all. Other accusations against Socrates arose out of a sort of wisdom he practiced. This practice emerged out of a declaration made by the Delphian Oracle. He said that Socrates was the wisest of men. Once Socrates discovered this, he went about searching after a man who was wiser than himself to prove the priestess wrong. At first he went among the politicians, and then among the philosophers, and he found that he did, in fact have an advantage over them because he had no conceit of his knowledge, as the others did. Socrates found that poets were the worst possible interpreters of the...
