[Music] humiliated their empire lost the Athenians looked for someone to take the blame for their defeat they searched for an enemy within their City walls someone who had dared to question their dreams of [Music] Supremacy they ser for Socrates Socrates was a Critic he was critical of the thinking and the thought processes of his fellow citizens and he was critical about the public affairs of [Music] atham for over 50 years Socrates had been publicly questioning and attacking the traditions of Athenian life and around him he had gathered a group of youthful followers surely this must have weakened the city's moral character undermined her hunger for victory on the command of the assembly Socrates was arrested on charges of questioning the state religion and corrupting the Youth of the [Music] city I am quite sure that especially in a relatively small Society like Athens someone who is constantly questioning the principles by which the society has traditionally governed itself who be perceived as a very major danger by at least some people in society you can easily see that a few hundred people might want him out and they [Music] did the Athenians would now put to trial the one man who dare to question the way they live their lives [Music] [Music] Socrates trial would be held in Athens Central Marketplace under a canopy to shade the fierce heat of the Greek son he would be Tried by a jury of his fellow citizens chosen at [Music] random but this would not be a trial we would recognize Athenian legal system was remarkably different from a modern system there are no lawyers involved with this there is no trained judge involved with this it is in some ways a very frightening system from a modern point of view uh the law did not have the same stature in Athens that it has in a modern society Socrates would be judged by the same kind of group he had watched condemn six generals to summary execution 7 years [Music] before he would be given only a limited time to defend himself all speeches in the Athenian courts were timed by a water clock one jar of water steadily running into another but Socrates shows no fear in the face of his accusers in fact he is positively stubborn he explains that far from corrupting Athens his life of questioning has done nothing but improve the city to put it bluntly I've been assigned to this city as if to a large horse which is inclined to be lazy and is in need of some great stinging fly and all day long I'll never cease to settle here there everywhere rousing and reproving every one of you it is not an approach designed to win sympathy Socrates is setting himself and his life against the entire Athenian State here is doing what he thinks is the right thing to do he thinks the life he has chosen this life of thinking for yourself is the best life as he says in his speech the unexamined life is not worth living for a human being if Socrates had simply apologized to the court he might well have been acquitted but instead he demands free dinners for life for all the work he has [Music] done I can just imagine what that jury and the audience of that trial must have thought at the time it must have been absolutely speechless when the final vote came the verdict could hardly have been a surprise the court found Socrates guilty with the penalty of death but Socrates reacted with calm and [Music] serenity well now it is time to be off I to die and you to live but which of us has the happier Prospect is unknown to anyone but heaven [Music] Socrates was taken from the court to Athens prison the site of this Prison still exists we can still trace the layout of the cell in which Socrates was probably held and we still have accounts of Socrates last days from friends who visited him in his cell they are among the most famous Greek writings for with his death Socrates would transform [Music] Athens he would show his fellow citizens that the principles of reason of questioning the world were something worth dying [Music] for Socrates would be executed in the traditional Athenian manner by drinking Hemlock some of the hamlock cups used for the poison are still preserved death by Hemlock is excruciatingly painful causing gradual paralysis of the Cent central nervous system but as the moment of his execution Drew near Socrates turned to his friends treating the whole Affair as if it were nothing at all for me the fated hour calls in other words I think it's about time I took my bath I prefer to wash before drinking the poison rather than give the women the bother of washing me when I am dead but as the hemlock was poured his friends broke down we have the account of one named pho in spite of myself the tears came pouring down so that I covered my face and wept brokenhearted and then everyone in the room broke down except Socrates himself who said really my friends what a way to behave I'm told that one should make one's end in a reverent silence calm yourselves and be [Music] brave as Socrates lay back on his bed and let the poison take effect his friends watched in silence here was a man who was dying not for Glory not not for fame and honor but for the sake of his principles because he believed that man should question the world around him it was a sight they would never [Music] forget Socrates in his life and in his death becomes a completely new Greek hero from now now on the hero is a person of conviction a person who will follow nothing but the dictates of his intellectual conscience and that is a new conception of what a human being is like and what a good human being must be like [Music] for centuries the Athenians had believed in one ideal the vision of a martial warrior [Music] hero it had driven them to conquer great foes to build a mighty Empire but now in the depths of defeat they discovered a new figure to venerate Effigies of Socrates have been found amongst the ruins of the Athenian prison perhaps offerings to the dead philosopher perhaps the most important lesson that Socrates left is the need to be critical and the need to be self-critical the interesting thing that I see in Athens in the years after the execution of Socrates is this same same capacity to look at themselves and recognize that they have perhaps gone too far in the past and indeed to embrace a certain kind of maturity Athens was never again a great Imperial power but neither did her democracy lapse again into mob rule [Music] instead she became a city of intellectual inquiry a Haven of study and discussion where Socrates students and his students students slowly began to build a world based on [Music] reason Plato tried to formulate the ideal Society Aristotle studied nature establishing biology and [Music] zoology and slowly the ideas and work of these Greek thinkers began to spread across the known world one could say that a major part of the energy of the Athenians turns into building what one might call empires of [Music] thought so where before you had Athens sending its ships to the various Islands in order to collect taxes here you have reason extending its dominion over all areas in which our lives are actually [Music] lived Socrates principles of reason of questioning assumptions and the world around you still endure [Music] in the space of less than 200 years the ancient Greeks transformed their world for amongst these ruins a few great figures carved a mighty [Music] Empire they invented democracy and politics science and [Music] philosophy they gave us literature and drama art and monuments which still take our breath away and ultimately these Greeks taught us how to reason and think 2 and a half thousand years later their astonishing achievements continue to shape our world [Music]