Imagine you were present at Socrates' trial. Write a short speech in which you either state why he should be declared innocent or why he should be found guilty.

"NOT GUILTY"

Socrates is a good man. He has spoken truthfully and in a straight forward manner. This is a man who not only has made his first appearance in court, but, is seventy years of age, is unfamiliar with court dialect and still has made himself a very strong defence.

Unfortunately, Socrates has already been condemned by his previous, more formidable accusers, those men who have told all of you at your most impressionable age:

"There is a clever man called Socrates who has theories about the heavens and has investigated everything below the earth, and can make the weaker argument defeat the stronger."

At this time there was nobody to defend him and understandably you all believed what you were told, but now you are grown men. Do not accept all that you are told anymore. He has such belief that he is not wise or great that when the oracle of Apollo told him that there was no one wiser than himself, he did not take advantage of it.

English: The School of Athens (detail). Fresco, St...

Portrait of Socrates. Marble, Roman artwork (1st c...

The "obscene" medieval depiction of Socrates and P...

He set off in hope of finding someone wiser than himself. In his dismay all he found was disappointment, all the men thought to be wise were in reality fooling others as well as themselves. It might even be thought that these charges have been brought against him for proving that these men really are not wise, the poets that Meletus represents, the craftsmen and politicians that Anytus stands for and the orators that Lycon is here on behalf of. The young men from wealthy households attached themselves so closely to him not because of his wisdom or that he was their philosopher and mentor, they imitated him because they enjoyed watch people being cross-questioned and being able to think in the same way and do the same,