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399BC399–322 BC · Athens

Trial of Socrates and the schools of Plato and Aristotle

Jacques-Louis David's 1787 painting of Socrates in prison, reaching for the cup of hemlock
Archival image: Jacques-Louis David. CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

In 399 BC a jury of 501 Athenian citizens found the philosopher Socrates guilty of impiety and corrupting the young, and he was put to death with hemlock. His pupil Plato wrote down his way of questioning and founded the Academy outside the city walls, and Plato's pupil Aristotle later taught at the Lyceum. Their schools set the questions of Western philosophy and science for two thousand years.

Sites

  1. Site 1: Ancient AgoraThe square where Socrates questioned passers-by, and the Royal Stoa where he was charged.Map ↗
  2. Site 2: Plato's Academy archaeological parkA park with the excavated foundations of the Academy's buildings.Map ↗
  3. Site 3: Aristotle's LyceumRemains of the gymnasium where Aristotle taught, opened to visitors in 2014.Map ↗

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