![]() ![]() His text is structured around this dual task, with the largest section (chapters 1 to 6) devoted to analysing the trial in the context of the late 5 th century, and the remaining chapters (7 to 9) examining some of the principal revised readings of the trial.īefore outlining the content of these chapters in more detail, it is important to mention the title first, as it illustrates not only the book’s guiding historical presupposition but also the method adopted throughout. In his book L’ Événement Socrate, historian Paulin Ismard tackles this endeavour with both talent and clarity. Understanding how this happened requires not only unpacking Socrates’ legend, separating out the different layers of apologetic or controversial interpretation that have built up over the centuries, but also placing his trial in the historical, legal, and intellectual context of 4 th-century Athenian democracy. ![]() How could a jury of Athenian citizens decide to execute the man who, according to his most famous disciple, was ‘the wisest and most just and best of men’ of his time? Such a condemnation seems scandalous to us today, as Socrates still epitomizes the free intellectual as a victim of obscurantism. In our collective consciousness, the Athenian assembly sentencing Socrates to death in 399 BC is democracy’s original sin. ![]() Reviewed : Paulin Ismard, L’Événement Socrate, Paris, Flammarion, collection « Au fil de l’histoire », 2013, 303 p. ![]()
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