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L I F E I N A T H E N S

Athenian law required all able-bodied males to serve as

citizen soldiers on duty from 18 to 60 years of age.

According to Plato, Socrates served in the armored
infantry, known as the hoplite, with a sword, a long spear

and a face mask. During the Peloponnesian War, he

participated in three military campaigns, Delium,

Amphipolis and Potidaea, where he saved the life of

Alcibiades, the popular Athenian general. Socrates was
known for his courage in war and fearlessness, a trait that

stuck with him throughout his life.

During his trial, he contrasted his refusal to withdraw from
his legal struggles with the refusal of a soldier to withdraw

from the war when he was threatened with death. Plato's

Symposium offers the best details of the physical presence

of Socrates. He was not the ideal of masculinity in Athens.
Short and stocky, with a snub nose and bulging eyes,

Socrates still appeared to be staring. Yet Plato pointed out

that, in the minds of his pupils, Socrates had a different

kind of desire, not based on a sexual ideal, but on his

clever debates and penetrating thinking. Socrates has
often emphasized the importance of the mind over the

relative lack of importance of the human body. This credo

influenced Plato's theory of separating reality into two

separate realms, the world of senses and the world of
thoughts, arguing that it was the only important one.