14. Life of Socrates. -- The figure of SOCRATES appears surrounded by a halo of moral grandeur. He has left us no writings: for our acquaintance both with his personality and with his teaching we are indebted to his disciples, Plato and Xenophon, who profess an enthusiastic admiration for their master. Born about 470, Socrates lived through that period of Athenian splendour associated with the glorious name of Pericles. Scarcely anything is known about his life. Absolutely indifferent to that external repute for which the Athenians were so sensitive, he set himself up as a moralist inspired from on high (the Socratic Daimôn), as one with a divine mission to teach men the way of righteousness. In the Athenian society of the fifth century, whose vices he scourged so relentlessly, belief in the gods was already in ruins; their worship was regarded as a mere official ceremony, devoid of all inner meaning. The unguarded language of Socrates thereon aroused a deep, suspicious discontent. This finally was his undoing: in 399 he was condemned to drink the hemlock.