Socrates Civil Disobedience

Socrates was one of the most influential philosophers of all time. This amazing man was known only in the words of his students Plato and Xenophon. He fought in the Athenian army, he was a stone statuary, he was in the Athens assembly, and most of all he was a teacher of philosophy. Socrates was brave and fearless in the face of war and death; he was willing to fight for things he believed in. His words are still referenced today. Socrates was born to a working class family in the city of Athens, Greece in 469 B.C. (Fourth year of the 77th Olympiad). His father was a statuary (a sculptor) named Sophrohiscus. Socrates’s mother was a midwife named Phaenarate, she was only supposed to help with the women giving birth to Socrates, but
His reason for wanting to try these men was because they failed to retrieve the bodies of men after they lost a battle with the Sparta. It was illegal to propose such a thing as this. The generals were executed anyhow. Three years later the leaders of the Athens government forced Socrates to arrest and terminate Leon who was from the city of Salamis. The reason for this man’s arrest was because of civil disobedience. Socrates thought this was not right so he refused. Martin Luther King would later use this example in his “letter from Birmingham
His termination was postponed due to a religious festival, for thirty days. During those thirty days his friends and student would try to convince Socrates to escape Athens. His students and friends wanted him to go to somewhere other then his doomed fate in Athens. He didn’t want to lose his fight and dignity with the people of Athens who disagreed with his believes. So he refused their offers for transport to other places. The Athens government chose to poison Socrates with Hemlock. Hemlock is a very poisonous plant that is native to Europe and Asia; unlike some other plants where only the flower or stem are poisonous, the whole plant is. The Hemlock plant is so poisonous that people have died from eating birds who have ate hemlock. Today the Hemlock plant is used in medicine, for people with breathing problems, anxiety, whooping cough, etc. The Hemlock plant is so common it even grows in Redstone, CO. The guards put the Hemlock poisoning in tea for Socrates to drink. Socrates drank the tea letting the poison enter his body. He would than go on to walk around his cell letting the Hemlock enter his nerves system, slowly numbing his legs. Socrates would sit when he could no longer walk, then lay down when he could no longer sit, and close his eyes when he could no longer keep his eye lids from sliding closed. His breathing then slowed till he took his last breath letting all the life leave his