Apology

1. In what city is Aristotle put on trial?

A. Sparta

B. Corsica

C. Athens

D. Rome

2. Which of these individuals is NOT one of Socrates’s formal accusers?

A. Anytus

B. Chaerephon

C. Lycon

D. Meletus

3. Which playwright does Socrates credit with slandering him as impious and dangerous? (short answer)

4. Which of these is NOT a reason Socrates says he fears his unnamed accusers more than his three formal accusers?

A. They’ve been criticizing him for longer.

B. They are in more prominent positions of society.

C. They are more numerous.

D. They cannot be directly refuted in court.

5. What does the oracle at Delphi tell Chaerephon?

A. There is no one wiser than Socrates.

B. Socrates is destined to be put on trial.

C. There is no one wiser than Plato.

D. The people of Athens are destined for ruin.

6. Why does Socrates believe he is wiser than many others?

A. He is older.

B. He once served on the Council of 500.

C. The oracle said so.

D. Socrates knows that he knows nothing.

7. According to Socrates, which Athenians are most deficient in wisdom?

A. the ones with the highest reputations

B. the ones with the lowest reputations

C. the poets

D. the youth

8. Why does Socrates consider poets to be surprisingly lacking in wisdom?

A. Their poems mean nothing.

B. They only understand poetry, not life.

C. They don’t understand their own poems.

D. The only poets left in Athens are fools.

9. Which of these groups does Socrates consider wiser than the others?

A. the politicians

B. the jurymen

C. the craftsmen

D. the orators

10. According to Socrates, what is the reason for his unpopularity?

A. His appearance is offensive to others.

B. He doesn’t accept payment for educating the youth.

C. He is believed to be a Spartan traitor.

D. He openly explains people’s own ignorance to them.

11. What are the two charges brought against Socrates? (short answer)

12. Why does Socrates believe the accusations of atheism against him are contradictory?

A. because he has never questioned the existence of the city’s gods

B. because he is also accused of teaching about gods the city does not believe in

C. because Anytus is a known atheist

D. because Lycon is a known atheist

13. According to Socrates, what should never influence a person’s actions?

A. what other people think

B. fear of death

C. fear of the gods

D. a person’s conscience

14. With which accuser does Socrates share a long back-and-forth dialogue concerning the corruption of youth? (short answer)

15. Why does Socrates say it is foolish for humans to fear death?

A. No one knows if death is a blessing or a curse.

B. The existence of the afterlife is a certainty.

C. He knows that death is a dreamless yet pleasant sleep.

D. A person can never prepare for death.

16. What potential sentence does Socrates say he would reject if it were handed down to him?

A. death

B. a fine

C. a ban on seeing the oracle

D. a ban on practicing philosophy

17. What does Socrates warn will happen if Athens executes him?

A. The gods will punish Athens.

B. Sparta will invade Athens.

C. Athens’s reputation will be tarnished.

D. Socrates will return to Athens as a spirit.

18. Why does Socrates say his accusers cannot truly harm him?

A. He is protected by the gods.

B. He already has nothing and cannot be harmed further.

C. His spirit is eternal and impervious.

D. A worse person cannot truly harm a better person.

19. What insect does Socrates liken himself to? (short answer)

20. Why does Socrates say he does not participate in public affairs?

A. Public affairs bore him.

B. A man who fights for justice must lead a private life.

C. The Athenian assembly banned him from joining.

D. Public officials put their lives at risk.

21. As a member of the Athenian Council, what illegal act was Socrates alone in opposing?

A. the invasion of Sparta

B. the trial of ten generals

C. the execution of Critias

D. the exile of the Council’s political enemies

22. Who is Leon from Salamis?

A. one of Socrates’s brightest students

B. a politician who ordered Socrates to execute a general

C. a general whom Socrates was ordered to retrieve for execution

D. the man who conveyed the oracle’s prophecy concerning Socrates

23. Why is Socrates not a teacher, in his view?

A. because he is not paid for his work

B. because the youth reject his teachings

C. because his efforts go unappreciated among the elders

D. because he only writes down his teachings, rather than sharing them orally

24. Why do the youth enjoy Socrates’s company, in his view?

A. They enjoy hearing Socrates question people who wrongly believe they are wise.

B. They believe Socrates is a good luck charm, blessed by the gods.

C. Socrates feeds them and offers them drinks.

D. They lack the wisdom to know he is unwise.

25. Which of these is an argument Socrates names for why he did not corrupt the youth?

A. He has children himself and would therefore never corrupt the youth.

B. The youth are already too corrupted for him to corrupt them further.

C. None of them grew up and avenged themselves against him.

D. He doesn’t spend any time with the youth.

26. What does Socrates refuse to do at the end of his testimony, even if it means running “the ultimate risk”?

A. interrogate the motivations of his accusers

B. appeal to the jurymen’s sense of logic

C. attack his accusers directly

D. beg for forgiveness

27. What sentence does Meletus ask that the jury select for Socrates? (short answer)

28. What is Socrates’s response to being found guilty?

A. He is confused.

B. He is unsurprised.

C. He is angry.

D. He is silent.

29. By what vote margin is Socrates convicted?

A. 1

B. 30

C. 100

D. 500

30. What happens when someone brings charges against a person and only convinces one fifth of the jury?

A. They are fined.

B. They are tried for treason.

C. They are executed.

D. They are barred from the Council.

31. What sentence does Socrates believe he deserves?

A. death by hemlock

B. exile to Sparta

C. no sentence

D. a celebration

32. What fine is Socrates willing to accept?

A. one mina

B. 30 minas

C. 100 minas

D. He will accept no fine.

33. What change to the trial process would make Socrates confident that he could have convinced the jury?

A. if the jury had been made up of elderly men like him

B. if the trial was set in the countryside, not the city

C. if the trial were longer than a day

D. if Socrates was allowed to address his accusers directly

34. Why does Socrates say that a fine is an unsuitable punishment?

A. because fines should never be used as punishments

B. because he likely wouldn’t be able to pay it

C. because paying it would cause his family to suffer financially

D. because he fears debtor’s prison more than regular prison

35. The ­­__________ life is not worth living. (short answer)

36. According to Socrates, why was the jury foolish to have sentenced him to death?

A. Socrates held back many others who will now test the people of Athens harder than ever.

B. Athens’s neighbors will sense weakness in the state and invade it.

C. The gods will send emissaries to avenge Socrates’s death.

D. History will remember Athens as an unjust place that killed its best citizens.

37. What is more difficult to avoid than death, because “it runs faster than death” (42)?

A. impiety

B. corruption

C. wickedness

D. shame

38. Why is Socrates content with death being a “dreamless sleep”?

A. because he is certain that if there is an afterlife he will go to hell

B. because it is preferable to spending eternity in the underworld

C. because a night of sound sleep is better than most days on Earth

D. because he feels he does not deserve eternal life

39. If there is an afterlife, how would Socrates like to spend his time there?

A. enjoying luxury and comfort

B. spying on the Athenians who condemned him

C. atoning for his sins on Earth

D. behaving as he does on Earth, testing people’s wisdom

40. What does Socrates ask the jurymen to do when his children grow up?

A. to tell them Socrates loved them

B. to interrogate them as Socrates interrogated Athenians

C. to pay for their schooling

D. to make sure they do not meet the same fate as Socrates