Socrates

Socrates as a young an worked as a stonemason and then fought heroically in the Peloponnesian War. He has a working class background and battlefield experiences that may have shaped how he views the world. He met with young students outside of the agora and his method was to ask them a series of questions to determine underlying belief ad extent of their knowledge. This eventually lead to the scientific method. He was charged with 2 crimes and went to trial. Corruption of Athens youth and impiety which is not believing in the gods of the state. His defense in trial was, "It's my job to be gadfly to the lazy, sluggish horse that is Athens." "I should actually be rewarded with free dinners for life." A jury of 500 men found him guilty. He was sentenced to death by drinking poison hemlock. He had the opportunity to escape before his death. Guards were going to try to get him out because many people actually liked him, and he was popular. He refused, he wanted to prove his loyalty to the Athenian Democracy.