Life
Crito grew up in the Athenian deme of Alopece alongside Socrates and was of roughly the same age as the philosopher, placing his date of birth around 469 BCE. Plato's Euthydemus and Xenophon's Memorabilia both present him as a wealthy businessman who made his money from agriculture, which scholars speculate was conducted in Alopece itself. He seems to have married a woman with impressive aristocratic pedigree and had at least two sons, including the elder Critobulus (Κριτόβουλος, Kritóboulos), one of Socrates' young followers, and the younger Archestratus (Άρχέστρατος, Archéstratos), later a successful general. His participation in the events surrounding the trial and death of Socrates of 399 implies that he survived into the 4th century.
Diogenes Laërtius treats Crito as a philosopher himself and attributes to him the composition of 17 dialogues; he also names three further sons Crito: Hermogenes, Epigenes and Ctesippus. Modern scholars generally treat Diogenes' account as apocryphal, most likely a conflation with another author, since the genre of Socratic literature did not develop until well after Crito's period of flourishing and these sons appear nowhere in the contemporaneous historical record. Despite his strong friendship with Socrates, historians are skeptical of Crito's status as a philosopher, as opposed to mere associate within the Socratic circle, due largely to his portrayal as a pragmatic and non-propositional thinker within the literature.
Read more about this topic: Crito Of Alopece
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“Dragging out life to the last possible second is not living to the best effect. The nearer the bone, the sweeter the meat. The best of life, Passworthy, lies nearest to the edge of death.”
—H.G. (Herbert George)
“A moment that gave not only itself, but
Also the means of keeping it, of not turning to dust
Or gestures somewhere up ahead
But of becoming complicated like the torrent
In new dark passages, tears and laughter which
Are a sign of life, of distant life in this case.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“I heard a good one at Toulouse of a woman who had passed through the hands of some soldiers: “God be praised,” she said, “that at least once in my life I have had my fill without sin!””
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)