The significance of Plato’s Apology of Socrates is impossible to overestimate. An account of the famous trial of Socrates in 399 b.c., it appeals to historians, philosophers, political scientists, classicists, and literary critics. It is also essential reading for students of ancient Greek. This new commentary on Plato’s canonical work is designed to accommodate the needs of students in intermediate-level Greek classes, where they typically encounter the Apology for the first time. Paul Allen Miller and Charles Platter, two highly respected classicists and veteran instructors, present the Apology in its traditional thirty-three-chapter structure. They amplify the text with running commentary and glosses of unfamiliar words at the bottom of each page; brief chapter introductions to relevant philosophical, historical, and rhetorical issues; and a separate series of thought-provoking essays, one on each chapter. The essays can serve as bases for class discussions or as starting points for paper topics or general reflection. By integrating background material into the text at regular intervals rather than front-loading it in a lengthy initial overview or burying it in back-of-the-book endnotes, the authors offer students a rich encounter with the text. Their commentary incorporates the latest research on both the trial of Socrates and Plato’s version of it, and it engages major philosophical issues from a contemporary perspective. This book is not only a much-needed aid for students of Greek. It is also the basis of a complete course on the Apology.

Apology is Plato's version of the speech given by Socrates as he defended himself in 399 BC against the charges of "corrupting the young, and by not believing in the gods in whom the city believes, but in other daimonia that are novel." Socrates begins by telling the jury that their minds were poisoned by his enemies when they were young and impressionable. He says his reputation for sophistry comes from his enemies, all of whom are envious of him, and malicious. He says they must remain nameless, except for Aristophanes, the comic poet. He later answers the charge that he has corrupted the young by arguing that deliberate corruption is an incoherent idea. Socrates says that all these false accusations began with his obedience to the oracle at Delphi. He tells how Chaerephon went to the Oracle at Delphi, to ask if anyone was wiser than Socrates. When Chaerephon reported to Socrates that the god told him there is none wiser, Socrates took this as a riddle. He himself knew that he had no wisdom "great or small" but that he also knew that it is against the nature of the gods to lie. Socrates then went on a "divine mission" to solve the paradox (that an ignorant man could also be the wisest of all men) and to clarify the meaning of the Oracles' words. He systematically interrogated the politicians, poets and craftsmen. Socrates determined that the politicians were imposters, and the poets did not understand even their own poetry, like prophets and seers who do not understand what they say. Craftsmen proved to be pretentious too, and Socrates says that he saw himself as a spokesman for the oracle (23e). He asked himself whether he would rather be an impostor like the people he spoke to, or be himself. Socrates tells the jury that he would rather be himself than anyone else.

The Apology of Socrates was written by Plato. In fact, it’s a defensive speech of Socrates that he said in a court noted down by Plato. The main subject of the speech is a problem of the evil. Socrates insists that neither death nor death sentence is evil. We shouldn’t be afraid of the death because we don’t know anything about it. Socrates proved that the death shouldn’t be taken as the evil with the following dilemma: the death is either a peace or a transit from this life to the next. Both can’t be called evil. Consequently, the death shouldn’t be treated as evil.

This is the first full-scale reference grammar of Classical Greek in English in a century. The first work of its kind to reflect significant advances in linguistics made in recent decades, it provides students, teachers and academics with a comprehensive yet user-friendly treatment. The chapters on phonology and morphology make full use of insights from comparative and historical linguistics to elucidate complex systems of roots, stems and endings. The syntax offers linguistically up-to-date descriptions of such topics as case usage, tense and aspect, voice, subordinate clauses, infinitives and participles. An innovative section on textual coherence treats particles and word order and discusses several sample passages in detail, demonstrating new ways of approaching Greek texts. Throughout the book numerous original examples are provided, all with translations and often with clarifying notes. Clearly laid-out tables, helpful cross-references and full indexes make this essential resource accessible to users of all levels.

Zina Giannopoulou offers a new reading of Theaetetus, Plato's most systematic examination of knowledge, alongside Apology, Socrates' speech in defence of his philosophical practice, and argues that the former text is a philosophical elaboration of the latter.

This is a work of ancient rhetoric which philosophically illustrates in practice and illuminates in principle Plato's version of Socrates' dialectical method. The most recent work on the rhetoric of the Apology is largely in German, and the most valuable work on the philosophical underpinning and implications is largely in English. This edition aims not merely to present and combine the results but to develop them further on both fronts. The editor is sceptical of the historical accuracy of Plato's version of Socrates defence, and offers on the whole an account of the Apology as a work of Plato's own.