Why did Athens sentence Socrates to death?

Officially, for impiety and for corrupting the young. In 399 BC, a jury of Athenian citizens chosen by lot found the philosopher guilty of failing to acknowledge the city's gods, introducing new deities and leading the youth astray. The sentence was death by a cup of hemlock.

But many have suspected the charges were only part of the story. Socrates spent his life publicly questioning people who claimed to be wise, and rivals resented a method that made them look foolish. Worse, some of his former students had become symbols of disaster: Alcibiades pushed Athens into the catastrophic Sicilian Expedition, and Critias led the Thirty Tyrants, a brutal pro-Spartan regime. Because an amnesty barred prosecutions for that period, some argue that religion became the legal pretext for a political grudge.

The trial itself is strikingly human. Probably judged by 501 jurors, Socrates lost by about 280 votes to 221. Surprised it was so close, he joked that his "punishment" should be free meals at the city's hearth, an honour reserved for the city's benefactors and Olympic champions. His friends, Plato among them, offered to guarantee a large fine. The jury chose death, by an even bigger majority.

Friends urged him to escape, and Athens half expected him to. He refused to break the law, and at 70 he drank the poison.