Two Puzzles Involving Socrates

Two well-known but puzzling facts from the life of Socrates bring into question either what we know about him or what we know about Athenian democracy—or perhaps both. These facts are (a) his term as member of the Council (Boule) in 406/5 and (b) his military service as a hoplite. The first puzzle can be solved only in the context of the extraordinary crisis of manpower in Athens in 406. The second can be solved only if we assume that, despite his poverty, Socrates retained his inherited membership in the third-census class of zeugitai.