1. See e.g. Gregory Vlastos, Socrates, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1991, p. 46.
2. Socrates in the Apology points to those who most frequently associated with him as witnesses against the indictment, beginning with Crito: ‘There is Crito, who is of the same age and of the same deme of myself, and there is Critobulus his son’ (33d9-e1).
3. ‘To be given free meals in Prytaneum’, a privilege granted to victors at Olympia, to distinguished generals, and to the representatives of certain families (e.g. descendants of Harmodius and Aristogiton, celebrated as tyrannicides). Cf. John Burnet’s edition of Plato’s Euthyphro, Apology of Socrates, Crito, Oxford University Press, Oxford 1924, note on Apology 36d7, p. 235.
4. Only the wealthiest Athenians could afford to compete in Olympia in the chariot races.
5. The first part of the quotation – ‘Imagine ... individuals’ – is in Jowett’s translation. The rest is mine, for I could not accept his ‘Answer, Socrates, instead of opening your eyes ...’ for Plato’s ô Sôkrates, mê thaumaze ta legomena ... .
6. Aristophanes himself explains in the Knights that he considered himself too young to produce his previous comedies (507-546).
7. See e.g. M.F. Burnyeat ‘Socratic Midwifery, Platonic Inspiration’, Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 24 (1977). Cf. Julius Tomin, ‘Socratic Midwifery’, CQ 37 (i) 971102 (1987).
8. Tr. Cornford. Socrates identified knowledge and wisdom at the beginning of the Theaetetus: tauton ara epistêmê kai sophia, 145e6.
9. I put ‘your’ in italics for the possessive pronoun ‘your’ translates the definite article to in the Greek original: to himation, elided as thoimation.
10. The English translation omits the definite article which the Greek original retains: thoimation ‘the mantle’.
11. K.J. Dover, Aristophanes, Clouds, Oxford University Press, Oxford 1968, repr. 1982, note on line 179, pp. 118-119.
12. See further Julius Tomin, ‘Socratic Midwifery’, CQ 37 (i) 97-102 (1987), and ‘Socratic Gymnasium in the Clouds’, Symbolae Osloenses LXII, 25-32 (1987).
13. For this dating of the Protagoras see Julius Tomin, ‘The Protagoras in the light of the Seventh Letter’, in: Plato’s Protagoras, Proceedings of the Third Symposium Platonicum Pragense, OIKOYMENH, Prague 2003, pp. 175-192.
14. Cf. John Burnet, Plato’s Phaedo, op. cit., note on 59c4.
15. John Burnet, Plato’s Phaedo, op. cit., note on 59c3.
16. Cf. Julius Tomin, ‘Socrates in the Phaedo’ in: Plato’s Phaedo, Proceedings of the Second Symposium Platonicum Pragense, OIKOYMENH, 2001, pp. 142-150.
17. The series Theaetetus, Euthyphro, Cratylus – Sophist, Politicus – Phaedo is a dramatical sequence. The chronological sequence of their composition is in my view: Euthyphro, Cratylus, Phaedo, Theaetetus, Sophist, Politicus. In the clause ‘which the mature Plato dramatically concentrated and re-enacted in the series Theaetetus, (Euthyphro, Cratylus) – Sophist, Politicus – Phaedo’ I put the Euthyphro and Cratylus in brackets, for the Euthyphro was written, as I have argued, during Socrates’ life-time, and the Cratylus was written, as I believe, shortly after the Crito.
For just as the Crito was written to modify Socrates’ views on justice as expressed in the Apology, so the Cratylus had to shed new light on Socrates’ view of the traditional gods as expressed in the Euthyphro. His provocative rejection of the traditional view of the gods of the City: ‘I cannot stand these stories about gods – is not this the reason, why I am charged with impiety’ (6a6-8) is radically modified in the Cratylus. Inspired by the morning discussion with Euthyphro, Socrates in the Cratylus presents his views about the Gods, which he derives from their names, and which are very far from the traditional views of them, but he announces cautiously that the day after indulging himself with such speculations he will have to undergo a thorough purification (aurion katharoumetha, 396e3-4). Furthermore, he piously addresses himself to the Gods, telling them that he is investigating names that the humans give them, and thus investigating human views about them, ‘for this will not incur the wrath of the Gods’ (touto gar anemesêton, 401a5). Finally, Socrates yet again emphasizes his disquiet: ‘And now, by the Gods, let us not talk about the Gods any more, for I am afraid to talk about them’ (407d6-7). If Plato was to have any hope of a political career in Athens – and as the Seventh Letter indicates, he abandoned those hopes only some nine years after the death of Socrates – these corrections had to be done as soon as possible. This is why I date the Crito shortly after the death of Socrates, during Plato’s stay in Megara, and the Cratylus soon after.