The great statesman Pericles was closely associated with this new learning and a friend of Anaxagoras, however, and his political opponents struck at him by taking advantage of a conservative reaction against the philosophers; it became a crime to investigate the things above the heavens or below the earth, subjects considered impious. Anaxagoras is said to have been charged and to have fled into exile when Socrates was about twenty years of age.Debra Nails, The People of Plato (Indianapolis: Hackett, 2002), 24. There is a story that Protagoras, too, was forced to flee and that the Athenians burned his books.Nails, People of Plato, 256. Socrates, however, is the only subject recorded as charged under this law, convicted, and sentenced to death in 399 BC (see Trial of Socrates). In the version of his defense speech presented by Plato, he claims that it is the envy he arouses on account of his being a philosopher that will convict him.
The great statesman Pericles was closely associated with this new learning and a friend of Anaxagoras however and his political opponents struck at him by taking advantage of a conservative reaction against the philosophers; it became a crime to investigate the things above the heavens or below the earth subjects considered impious Anaxagoras is said to have been charged and to have fled into exile when Socrates was about twenty years of ageDebra Nails The People of Plato (Indianapolis Hackett 2002) 24 There is a story that Protagoras too was forced to flee and that the Athenians burned his booksNails People of Plato 256 Socrates however is the only subject recorded as charged under this law convicted and sentenced to death in 399 BC (see Trial of Socrates) In the version of his defense speech presented by Plato he claims that it is the envy he arouses on account of his being a philosopher that will convict him