TY - JOUR AB - Although the similarities between the trial of Socrates and the trial of Jesus have been discussed since the age of the Apologists, the same cannot be said about the anonymously written Trial of Maximus the Confessor and Plato’s Apology. My paper seeks to start this discussion. First I look at the historical context of each trial, finding that each was preceded by a rebellion that the accused was suspected of inciting (the Thirty Tyrants’ in one, the Exarch Gregory’s in the other). Then I summarize the Trial, noting numerous similarities between it and the Apology. After this, I examine some of these similarities in detail. In particular, I show that the defense speeches of both Socrates and Maximus reveal a layer of duplicity endemic to the text: while both Socrates and Maximus appear to exonerate themselves, their defense speeches actually contain harsh mockeries of their accusers. Next, I elucidate the consanguinity between the defendants’ opposition to their cities’ god(s), whom they feel compelled to reject, and their introduction of new gods into their cities (the god of reason and the Christ of Dyothelitism)—a charge for which both defendants were tragically convicted. Finally, I examine the manner in which both figures play gadfly to their city. AU - Shepardson, Douglas A. DO - 10.5840/forphil201520216 KW - Maximus the Confessor; Plato; Socrates; Apology; Trial Narrative; Martyr; Political Philosophy; Relatio Motionis M1 - 2 M3 - Article N1 - Aeschines. Discours. Edited and translated by Guillaume Budé and Victor Martin. Vol. 1, Contre Timarque, Sur l’Ambassade infidèle. Collection des universités de France. Série grecque 41. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1927. Reprinted 1962, 2002. Blowers, Paul Marion. “Introduction.” In Maximus the Confessor, On the Cosmic Mystery of Jesus Christ: Selected Writings from St. Maximus the Confessor, translated by Paul Marion Blowers and Robert L. Wilken, 13–43. St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press Popular Patristics Series. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2003. Booth, Phil. Crisis of Empire: Doctrine and Dissent at the End of Late Antiquity. Transformation of the Classical Heritage 52. Berkeley; Los Angeles; London: University of California Press, 2013. Haldon, John F. Byzantium in the Seventh Century: The Transformation of a Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Jaspers, Karl. Socrates, Buddha, Confucius, Jesus: The Paradigmatic Individuals. Translated by Ralph Manheim. Edited by Hannah Arendt. A Harvest Book 99. San Diego; New York; London: Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1957. Kremer, Mark. “Preface.” In Plato and Xenophon, Apologies, edited and translated by Mark Kremer, ix-xii. Focus Philosophical Library. Newburyport, MA: Focus Publishing/R. Pullins Co., 2006. Louth, Andrew. Maximus the Confessor. The Early Church Fathers. London; New York: Routledge, 1996. Maximus the Confessor. Selected Writings. Translated by George C. Berthold. Edited by Jaroslav Pelikan and Irénée-Henri Dalmais. Classics of Western Spirituality. New York; Mahwah; Toronto: Paulist Press, 1985. Maximus the Confessor (testimony). Contra Constantinopolitanos [Against the People of Constantinople]. Edited by Pauline Allen and Bronwen Neil. CCSG 39: 230–32. Maximus the Confessor. Relatio Motionis. Edited by Pauline Allen and Bronwen Neil. CCSG 39: 13–51. Maximus the Confessor and his companions. Documents from Exile. Edited and translated by Pauline Allen and Bronwen Neil. Oxford Early Christian Texts. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2002. Ostrogorsky, Georg. History of the Byzantine State. Translated by John M. Hussey. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1957. Pelikan, Jaroslav. The Spirit of Eastern Christendom (600–1700). Vol. 2 of The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine. Chicago: Univesrity of Chicago Press, 1974. Plato. Platonis Opera. Edited by John Burnet. 5 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1900–1907. Plato and Aristophanes. Four Texts on Socrates: Plato’s Euthyphro, Apology, and Crito and Aristophanes’ Clouds. Edited and translated by Thomas G. West and Grace Starry West. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984. Scripta saeculi VII uitam Maximi Confessoris illustrantia: una cum Latina interpretatione Anastasii Bibliothecarii iuxta posita. Edited by Pauline Allen and Bronwen Neil. Corpus Christianorum. Series Graeca 39. Turnhout: Brepols/Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1999. Stone, Isidor F. The Trial of Socrates. London: Cape/Boston: Little Brown, 1988. Waterfield, Robin. Why Socrates Died: Dispelling the Myths. London: Faber and Faber / New York: Norton, 2009. Welnak, Shawn C. “Platonic Education and the Idols of the City.” Unpublished manuscript, 2013. PY - 2015 SN - 1426-1898 (paper) 2353-7043 (online) SP - 171–182 ST - Maximus and Socrates on Trial. A Historic-Literary Consanguinity of Rebellion T2 - Forum Philosophicum TI - Maximus and Socrates on Trial. A Historic-Literary Consanguinity of Rebellion VL - 20 ID - 234 ER -