This novel, devoted to the famous ancient Greek philosopher Socrates, creates a broad panorama of life in the Athenian polis during its rise and decline. Socrates' way of life, the moral and political conflicts in his fate, his popular style of philosophizing, military valor and civic courage, and his tragic end have surrounded his name with the alluring aura of legend. The fame with which Socrates was honored during his lifetime easily outlived entire eras and, undimmed, has come down to our own days through the span of two and a half millennia.