Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/862

Rh 850 SOCRATES. turn and the condemnation of Socrates were de- voted by the latter, in undisturbed repose, to poetic attempts (the first he had made in his life), and to the usual conversation with his friends. One of these conversations, on the duty of obedience to the laws even in the case of an unjust application of them, Plato has reported in the Crito^ so called after the faithful follower of the condemned man, who bore that name, and who, although he himself had become bail for Socrates, had endeavoured without success to persuade him to make his escape. In another, imitated or worked up by Plato in the Phaedo^ Socrates immediately before he drank the poison developed the grounds of his immovable conviction of the immortality of the soul. The manner in which the assembled friends, in the alternation of joyful admiration and profound grief, lauded him as one who, by the divine appointment, ■was going to a place where it must fare well with him, if with any one ; — how he departed from them with the one wish, that, in their care for themselves, that is, for their true welfare, they would cherish in their memories his latest and his earlier sayings ; — and how, with his last breath, he designates the transition to the life that lies beyond death as the true recovery from a state of impurity and disease, • — all this is set before us with such liveliness, that we gladly accord with the closing words of the dialogue : — "Thus died the man, who of all with whom we were acquainted was in death the noblest, in life the wisest and most just." (Plat. Phaed. pp.58, 59, 115, 118, ib. Interp. ; comp. Xen. Mem. iv. 8. § 4, &c.) To the accusations which were brought against Socrates in his impeachment subsequent enviers and haters added others, of which that impeach- ment takes no cognizance, and which are destitute of all credibility on other grounds. The accusa- tion that he was addicted to the vice of paederastia (Lucian de Domo^ c. 4., and in contradiction Maxim. Tyr. Dissert, xxv. xxvi. xxvii. ; J. M. Gesner, Socrates sanctus paederasta^ Traj. ad Rhen. 1769), Ave do not hesitate, supported by his unambiguous expressions respecting the essence of true, spi- ritual love in Xenophon {Symp. 8. § 2, 19, 32, &c., Mem. i. 2. § 29, &c., 3. § 8, &c.) and Plato {Symp. p. 222, &c.). to reject as a calumny. Also the account that in consequence of a resolution of the people allowing bigamy, which was passed during the Peloponnesian war, he was married to two women at the same time (Plut. Aristid. p. 335 ; Athen. xii. p, 555, &c. ; Diog. Laert., &c.), is to be set aside as unfounded, since the existence of any such resolution of the people cannot be proved, while the Socratics know of only one wife, Xan- thippe, and the account itself is not free from contradictions. J. Luzac, following Bentley and others, completely refutes it {Led. Ait. de Biyamia Socratis, Lugd. Bat. 1809). Whether, and how soon after the death of So- crates, repentance seized the Athenians, and his accusers met with contempt and pimishment ; and further whether and when, to expiate the crime, a brazen statue, the work of Lysippus, was dedi- cated to his memory (Plut. de Invid. et Odio, p. 537, &c. ; Diog. Laert. ii. 43. ib. Menag.), it is not easy to determine with any certainty, in conse- quence of the indefiniteness of the statements. Five years after his execution, Xenophon found himself obliged to compose the Memorabilia^ in vindication of Socrates. (Comp. A. Boeckh, de Si- SOCRATES. multate quam Plato cum Xe7ioplionie eoeercuisse fertur^ p. 19.) II. Among those who attached themselves with more than ordinary intimacy to Socrates, some were attracted mainly by the spiritual power which he exercised over men. To learn this power from him, that they might apply it in the conduct of the affairs of the state, was probably the immediate object of men like Critias (for Alcibiades, who is here named in connection with him — Xen. Mem. i. 2. § 14, &c. — was doubtless actuated by a nobler admiration for the whole personal character of the philosopher ; see especially Plat. Symp. p. 213, &,c.), and such remained attached to him only till ambition hurried them in other directions. Others sought to dive into the teaching and life of Socrates, in order to obtain for themselves and others an enduring rule of morality (comp. Xen. Mem. i. 2. § 48). How his image had exhibited itself to them and impressed itself upon them, several among them endeavoured to render mani- fest by noting down the conversations at which they had been present. Among such Xenophon and Aeschines hold the chief rank, though they could hardly have been the only ones who com- posed such memorials. Others felt themselves urged to develope still further the outlines of the Socratic doctrine, and, according to their original bent and their different modes of apprehending and developing it, arrived at very different theo- ries. But, persuaded that they were only advancing on the path marked out by Socrates, they referred to him their own peculiar amplifications of his doctrines. Just as in the dialogues of Plato, even in the Timaeus and the Laws, we find Socrates brought forward as leading, or at least introducing the conversations and investigations, so also Eu- cleides, Antisthenes, and others seem to have en- deavoured in their dialogues to glorify him, and to exhibit him as the originator of their doctrines. (Athen. v. p.216, c. ; A. Gellius, iV.^. ii. 17; comp. Ch, A. Brandis, Ueber die Grundlinien der Lehre des Socrates, in the Rhein. Museum, 1827, i. p. 120, &c.) In this way arose two essentially different represen- tations of Socrates, and in antiquity it was already disputed whether Plato or Xenophon (Sext. Emp. adv. Math. vii. 8), or even whether Plato or Aes- chines (Aristid. Orat. Plat. ii. p. 367, comp. 474) had sketched the more accurate picture of the man. He himself left either absolutely nothing in a written form (Cic. de Orat. iii. 16 ; Plut. de Alex, fort. p. 328 ; Diog. Laert, i. 16), or only a rhyth- mical version of some of Aesop's fables and the introduction to a hymn to Apollo, which he had composed during his imprisonment, when for the first time in his life he made any attempts in verse (Plat. Phaed. p. 61). The quotations that antiquity possessed of it were of doubtful authen- ticity (Diog. Laert. ii. 42 ; Themist. Orat. xiv. p. 321). What we possess from Aeschines, that is well authenticated, is limited to fragments. We have therefore only to decide for Xenophon, who exhibited considerable mental affinity with Socrates, or for Plato. Now Plato manifestly makes Socra- tes occupy his own place, and transfers to him the doctrines that were pecidiar to himself. Xeno- phon on the contrary exhibits no other intention than that of communicating information with fide- lity, and refrains from mixing up with his repre- sentation anything that was peculiar to himself. This was so much the easier for him, as it was