The Shadows of Socrates reveals for the first time how the philosopher was set up, who did it, and why.

What follows is not a dry philosophical tract but a real-life whodunit intertwined with a long running war, rivalry, sex addiction, betrayal, sedition, starvation, and epic bravery. Socrates was the most rational of men living in the most irrational of times.

There is another side to this story: one of the charges against him, impiety, lack of reverence for the gods, was a religious crime. From the perspective of the religious authorities of the time, the charge of impiety was warranted, his trial just, and the penalty appropriate. The priests did not tolerate scrutiny, even in the form of philosophical critique. To understand what happened and how it happened, we have to come to terms with the motives of the priests, and as importantly, Socrates' motives in provoking them. His trial is perhaps the first, but not last, great battle between philosophy and religion.