Opening Phaedo — Plato in Plato Scroll…
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Plato · David Horan
Were you yourself there with Socrates on the day he drank the poison in the prison, Phaedo, or did you hear about it from someone else? I was there myself, Echecrates. Well then, what did the man say before his death? And how did he die? I would love to hear about this. The fact is, no one from Phlius tends to visit Athens much these days, nor has any visitor come from there for quite a while, someone who could give us a definite account of those events, apart from saying that he drank the poison and died. They had nothing to say about anything else. So did you not even find out the details of the way the trial unfolded? Yes, someone did report these events to us, and we were surprised that although the trial took place some time ago, he was evidently put to death much more recently. Why did that happen, Phaedo? In his case, it was the result of a coincidence, Echecrates. It so happened …
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