Socrates was an ancient Greek philosopher from Classical Athens, born around 470 BC in the deme of Alopece. He wrote nothing himself. What survives comes through his student Plato, through Xenophon, and through the comedies of Aristophanes, who caricatured him on stage.

He is known for the Socratic method of question and answer and for the claim that the unexamined life is not worth living. He spent his days in the public places of Athens talking with anyone willing, lived simply, and held no lasting office. At about seventy he was tried for impiety and