At the time of his trial, Athens was politically unstable; insecure social structures don't like to be told they don't know as much as think they know, as Socrates was trying to demonstrate.
Formal and informal charge's were brought against Socrates; corrupting the youths of Athens with his teachings and impiety were among the formal accusations. Puzzled by these allegations, Socrates stated the reason behind the questioning of people's wisdom was bespoken by the gods through the Oracle at Delphi, noting specifically these were the same gods the other Athenians worshiped. Socrates explained, ".when the god ordered me, as I thought and believed- to live the life of a philosopher, to examine myself and others, I had abandoned my post for fear of death or anything else. That would have been a dreadful thing, and then I might truly have justly been brought here for not believing that there are gods, disobeying the oracle, fearing death, and thinking I was wise when I was not " (Apology 31-32). It was a lose, lose situation for him.
The remaining informal charges included: studying things in the sky and below the earth, as well as being accused of always making the weaker argument the stronger one. Socrates feared these accusations the most because there was no one to confront; like a bad rumor, finding the source of the tale would be unfeasible. His only defense was to give a speech illuminating the fact that he never made any money doing what he did. Found guilty by the court, Socrates is asked to propose a penalty. With a poor attempt of plea bargaining, Socrates accepts a verdict of execution, serenely telling the jury he is not afraid of death. He says emotions follow from knowledge, and since he has no knowledge of what death is, he has no feelings or emotions about death. He continues, stating he only has emotions if they are first authorized by reason, so there is no resaon to be afraid of death when he knows nothing about it.
