Athens, Intellectuals, and Demetrius of Phalerum’s Socrates

The literary tradition documents a fraught relationship between Athens and philosophers—a relationship dominated by, but scarcely confined to, the Athenians’ condemnation of Socrates. The historicity of much of this tradition has been questioned, and suspicion has fallen on Demetrius of Phalerum’s Apology of Socrates as a pivotal work within the supposed fabrication of this tradition. This article seeks to reassess the contribution of Demetrius’s Socrates to the anti-Athenian intellectual tradition, and to suggest that the work’s enduring significance resides rather in its contribution to Peripatetic historical investigation.