William Musgrave Calder

Studies in the Modern History of Classical Scholarship

Men in Their Books

Daniel J. Kramer

An Introductory Bibliography to the History of Classical Scholarship Chiefly in the XIXth and XXth Centuries

R. Scott Smith

Chiefly in the XIX and XXth Centuries

A Supplementary Bibliography to the History of Classical Scholarship

Ulrich K. Goldsmith

Phyllis B. Kenevan

Essays in Classics, Comparative Literature, and Philosophy

Hypatia

Martin Hose

Gregor Vogt-Spira

Markus C. Dubischar

Akten der Tagung zum 150. Geburtstag Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorffs in Greifswald, 19.-22. Dezember 1998

Wilamowitz in Greifswald

Proceedings of the Second Oldfather Conference, Held on the Campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, April 26-28, 1990

Werner Jaeger Reconsidered

Libanius

Marc Mastrangelo

Bernhard Huss

Socrates (469-399 BC) is one of history's most enigmatic figures. Our knowledge of him comes to us second-hand, primarily from the philosopher Plato, who was Socrates' most gifted student, and from the historian and sometime-philosopher Xenophon, who counted himself as a member of Socrates' inner circle of friends. We also hear of Socrates in one comic play produced during his lifetime (Aristophanes' Clouds) and in passing from the philosopher Aristotle, a student of Plato. Socrates is a figure of enduring interest. He is often considered the father of Western Philosophy, yet the four most famous accounts we have of him present a contradictory, confusing picture. Just who was Socrates? A brilliant philosopher, at times confounding and infuriating, morally serious and yet ironic; the ever-worldly man, sometime mystic, and uncommon martyr depicted by Plato? Or did Plato conflate Socrates' views with his own startling genius, as Aristotle suggests? Was So rates instead the less impressive, more mundane man whose commonsense impressed the laconic Xenophon? Or was Socrates the charlatan, the long-winded phony of Aristophanes' play? The Socratic works of Diogenes Laertius (3rd century AD), Libanius (AD 314 -- c. 393), Maximus of 'Tyre (2nd century AD), and Apuleius (born c. AD 125) add important dimensions to the portrait of Socrates: Diogenes Laertius' Life of Socrates emphasizes Socrates' deep ethical nature and his extraordinary personality; Libanius' Apology of Socrates is based on sources now lost to us; Maximus of Tyre's Whether Socrates Did the Right Thing When He Did Not Defend Himself makes the star ling claim (against testimony of Plato and Xenophon) that Socrates never spoke athis own trial; from Apuleius' On the God of Socrates we hear at length of Socrates' infamous daimonion: the "divine sign" only mentioned elsewhere, the sign that warned Socrates against certain courses of action. In short, from these four texts we are reintroduced to Socrates, and new wrinkles are added to an already intriguing historical figure.

Translations, with Introductions and Notes, of Four Important Documents in the Late Antique Reception of Socrates the Athenian

The Unknown Socrates

William Musgrave Calder

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