[Tichy]

I think a lot of that is right, HoneyBadger, but what it leaves out is the dirty Athenian politics on both sides and the crisis facing Athens at the end of the Peloponnesian War -- and the role of Socrates being supposedly the teacher of Athens' greatest traitor, Alcibiades.

To oversimplify, there were two factions in Athens, the oligarchs and the democrats. From all appearances there are both honest men and hypocritical political gamers on both sides. The oligarchs perceive or present themselves as opposed to a democracy gone corrupt in terms like Plato's "Socrates" diagnoses sophistry. The best analogy he gives in the Republic is something like: "Athens is like a ship that has two kinds of people on it, people who know how to steer the ship and want to steer it well, and people who know how to personally profit by convincing people they know how to steer the ship. Guess who's steering the ship?"

But the democrats perceive themselves as opposing first of all turning Athens into a Spartan client-state -- the oligarchs came to admire the Spartan manner of government, hence Plato's claim in Republic that the second *best* style of government is rule by militarily-disciplined "guardians." Secondly they perceived themselves as opposing rule by a wealthy elite, which is what most of the oligarchic supporters were.

Alcibiades expertly played these two factions off of one another -- for a while -- first being one of Athens' greatest generals, then, either perceiving defeat looming, or more profit elsewhere, collaborated with the Spartans and corresponding with oligarchic elements in Athens. Later on, after he ticks off the Spartans for reasons I can't remember, he takes up camp with the Persians and tries to rehabilitate himself in Athens by convincing the Persian king to send aid. (While of course telling the Persian king to only send enough aid to *prolong* the already 20+ yr war instead of allow Athens to win it.)

Long story long, by the time the Athenians had finally restored the democracy and ousted the second oligarchy, the "thirty", anyone associated with the oligarchs, and especially with old Al, was in for it, unless they embarked on a lickety-split under the table rehabilitation with the new old regime. (Exactly the kind of thing Socrates wouldn't do. Which is why if you read the dialogues surrounding his death, his friends are constantly saying 'this doesn't need to happen, just let us, um, *talk* to some people for you...')

But also by this time both sides had committed political purges and all other manner of evil, so no one's hands were clean. Except *maybe* Socrates', if we take his defense in the Apology at its word and he scrupulously held himself above the fray.

This is one reason why Plato always draws a distinction between "teaching" and what Socrates did. Socrates didn't *teach* Alcibiades, he went around town asking prominent people questions that revealed their ignorance of things they really should know if they're going to run a government (and thus revealed their hypocrisy in claiming to know it)...is it his fault that young men of leisure enjoyed listening to these exchanges, and followed him around?