A few days ago I came across what is another example of his heroism, the tale of the arrest of Leon of Salamis. The group that ruled Athens at the time, called The Thirty, ordered Socrates and several others to bring Leon in for execution. Leon was known for his good character, and everyone hated the Thirty, a group installed by the Spartans after the Peloponnesian War. So, while the rest of the group went in search of Leon, Socrates simply went home.
In Socrates words,
I showed again, not in words but in action, that, if it's not crude of me to say so, death is something I couldn't care less about, but that my whole concern is not to do anything unjust or impious.
Socrates is most famous for drinking the hemlock as ordered by the government, but here he proves that the simple act of doing nothing can be a powerful statement for justice.
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