In ancient times, people could be sentenced to death over simple things. In 399 BC, Socrates was sentenced to death because people were annoyed of him. Socrates had a lot of confidence that he was right while others were wrong. Socrates thought that he was right because he believed that he was on a mission from the gods, he thought there wasn’t anyone else like him, and because the accusations against him were untrue.
Socrates heard the news from Chaerephon, who went to the Delphi, that the gods said that he was the wisest. Socrates stated in the text, “I tell you that doing that would mean disobeying the god, and so I can’t keep quiet, you’ll think I’m putting you on, and you won’t believe me.” Socrates believed that the gods were always right, but he didn’t believe that he was the wisest and thought that there was a mistake, so he thought that he was on a mission from the gods to prove that he wasn’t the wisest by questioning people to see if they were wise or not. While he was questioning people, he called them out for not being wise, so people were annoyed at him and put him on trial for his life.
Socrates thought that he was one of a kind, like a gadfly annoying horses. He stated that “For if you kill me, you’ll find it hard to find someone like me, someone who… goes after the city the way a gadfly goes after a big thoroughbred horse that’s sluggish because of his great size and that needs to be roused by stinging.” Socrates believed that if people were to kill him, they wouldn’t find anyone else like him. He compared himself to a gadfly annoying lazy and sluggish horses because it was like how he kept on rousing and persuading people all day.
Accusations were thrown at him; people were annoyed with his questions and how he called them out for not being wise. Socrates said, “But now you yourselves can see that my accusers, who shamelessly throw every other charge at me, haven’t taken their shamelessness so far as to get somebody to testify that I ever charged anyone a fee or asked for pay.” Socrates was being accused of many things like teaching for money, but all the accusations didn’t have any evidence that they were true and that he actually did them.
Socrates had a lot of confidence that he was right, and others were wrong. He believed that he was on a mission from the gods, he thought he was one of a kind, and the accusations against him were false. All of Socrates’ questionings are now used as a teaching style to teach worldwide, called the Socratic Method.
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