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There are a number of diverse sources for the life of Socrates, including Xenophon, Aristophanes, and Diogenes Laertes. The best-known source is the Platonic dialogues. The exact date of the birth of Socrates is not known, but it was probably sometime between 479 and 469 AD. The future philosopher was born outside the walls of Athens and was the son of a stonemason or a sculptor and his mother was a midwife <ref> Cross, R. Nicol. Socrates, the man and his mission (New York, Routledge, 2018), p. 6</ref>. He was married twice and had three sons. According to one tradition, he was an apprentice sculptor and even sculpted some of the statues that adorned the Acropolis. It seems that from a young age that he was renowned for his conversation, wit, and intellect. Socrates was a full citizen of Athens and was expected to participate in the political, civil and military life of the city. Like other citizens he was expected to serve as a hoplite, a heavy infantryman <ref>Cross, p. 78</ref>. Socrates fought in the Peloponnesian War and fought in a string of battles over many years, he was widely praised for his bravery. Socrates according to the sources was often seen in the streets and public spaces of Athens and he was always raggedly dressed. He would engage people in conversation and often would demolish their cherished assumptions. This did not always make him popular. In Aristophanes' play, The Clouds, he is satirized as a ridiculous figure <ref> Aristophanes <ref>The Clouds, iv, iii</ref>. Socrates is widely credited with the invention of dialectic, which is a method of critical reasoning. He taught people that virtue, which he defined as a kind of excellence as the essential aim of life and not money, fame or honor. Socrates was very concerned with ethics and subjects such as justice. He held that people will be moral if they know what the good is and virtue is knowledge <ref>Russell, B. History of Western Philosophy (London, Routledge, 2000), p 17</ref>. Socrates was also very concerned with refuting the relativism of the Sophists, a class of teacher and wandering intellectual. Athens was a radical democracy and the citizens were directly involved in all aspects of the government and the legal system. Socrates, while serving as the supervisor of the Athenian Assembly’s court, vetoed the execution of a number of generals <ref> Cross, p 71 </ref>. They were accused of abandoning wounded Athenian soldiers on the battlefield. However, despite Socrates' efforts, the generals were executed. He was a very well-known public figure in Athens and a very controversial figure. During the reign of the Thirty Tyrants, he defied their request to arrest a man. In 399 BC, Socrates was charged with corrupting the minds of the youth of Athens and with not believing in the gods of the state. He was found guilty by the Council of Athenian citizens and condemned to death by poison. The jury was composed of Athenian citizens who voted by a majority to find him guilty. The trial of Socrates is often condemned as a show-trial <ref>Cross. p. 58</ref>. During the trial, the philosopher was defiant and did not admit any guilt and was defiant. When he was found guilty, Socrates claims that he was convicted because the Athenians feared the truth and his urgings to live an examined life. However, the philosopher accepted the verdict of the court and refused offers of help to escape. We have a detailed account of the death of the philosopher in the dialogue Phaedo, by Plato. In his last moments, he is shown as philosophizing, in which he claims that all philosophy is concerned with how to die. Socrates died by drinking the poison hemlock.