In his seventieth year, Socrates was brought to trial with the accusation that he was corrupting the youth, taking money for his services as a teacher, and that he did not believe in the gods (or any, for that matter) of Athens.
He was a scourge upon society according to his accusers. He must be dealt with, and soon.
The "Apology" of Plato recounts the trial of Socrates. An apo-logos means, "a defense," rather than what we know the word to mean today. Socrates was his own lawyer, though what he did with that power of attorney has perhaps not been repeated since.
Socrates not only incensed the jury of peers (501 of them), he suggested that the city of Athens should be grateful to have such a nuisance like Socrates around, for none to soon would another come around to, like a gadfly, sting the sleeping horse of Athens awake from her slumber. This slumber, according to Socrates, was an illness of the psyche, the soul.
Within the course of the trial, Socrates asks the jury, what he should do if he were to be acquitted, just sit down, shut up, and be a good boy? To this, Socrates reputedly responded,
ο δε ανεξεταστοσ βιοσ ου βιοωτοσ ανθρωπω
The life unexamined is no life of a human.
And, he would not shut up, sit down and be a good boy. It was his nature to question, to frustrate and to goad.
And, his fate was sealed with a verdict of death.
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