The Apology
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Clean text
- Extent:
- ~5,050 words · 24 passages
Cite this work
- APAXenophon. (n.d.). The Apology. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/xenophon/the-apology
- MLAXenophon. "The Apology." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/xenophon/the-apology.
- ChicagoXenophon. The Apology. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/xenophon/the-apology.
What it is about
Socrates' defence before the court, in Xenophon's version.
Context and history
Much shorter than Plato's and with a different thesis: Xenophon argues that Socrates let himself be condemned on purpose, preferring death at seventy to decrepitude. It is the other ancient explanation of that death, and reads better beside Plato's than alone.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
This was typed from Dakyns' series, "The Works of Xenophon," a four-volume set. The complete list of Xenophon's works (though there is doubt about some of these) is: Work Number of books The Anabasis 7 The Hellenica 7 The Cyropaedia 8 The Memorabilia 4 The Symposium 1 The Economist 1 On Horsemanship 1 The Sportsman 1 The Cavalry General 1 The Apology 1 On Revenues 1 The Hiero 1 The Agesilaus 1 The Polity of the Athenians and the Lacedaemonians 2 Text in brackets "{}" is my transliteration of Greek text into English using an Oxford English Dictionary alphabet table. The diacritical marks have been lost. THE APOLOGY OF SOCR← Back to Xenophon