The Site of Socrates' Trial

Now I must present myself at the Stoa of the Basileus to meet the indictment of Meletos, which he has brought against me. --Theaetetus, Plato

With those casual words to his disciples in the. year 399 B.C., Socrates went off to face the grave charges .that a disgruntled poet had brought against him: corrupting the youth of ancient Athens, impiety and practicing "religious novelties." The ensuing trial is still remembered as an epic defense of free speech and individual liberty, largely because of Plato's detailed account of it. But the trial site itself has long eluded archaeologists. Now, after nearly a century of digging in the heart of Athens, the search may finally be over.

Last week an American archaeologist disclosed that he had stumbled on the locale of Socrates' trial in new excavations just north of the ancient Athenian marketplace and civic center. Professor T. Leslie Shear Jr. of Princeton University and the American School of Classical Studies in Athens identified the area as the site of the Stoa (or portico) of the Basileus. As the No. 2 man in the nine-man elected Athenian hierarchy, the basileus often acted as the city's chief magistrate. It was in this capacity that he presided over the Athenian judges who ordered Socrates to take his own life by drinking a cup of hemlock.

Just across the Athens-Piraeus electric railway, the dig looks more like the excavation for a large new office building than the repository of one of ancient Greece's most famous sites. But the signs of the celebrated stoa--which was about 60 ft. long and 20 ft. wide--are clearly apparent to the trained eye. Still visible amid the rubble are the base outlines of twelve Doric columns that ancient chronicles say guarded the eastern base of the portico. So too are markings from the three walls that enclosed the rest of the building. In fact, the north wall is still lined with remnants of the stone benches on which some of Socrates' judges may have sat.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.