ABSTRACT
Two of the 'accusations' recorded by Xenophon must definitely be attributed to Polycrates: namely, the charge that Alcibiades and Critias, two men who had 'inflicted a great many evils on the city', had been disciples of Socrates; and the allegation that Socrates had praised Odysseus for his 'anti-democratic' utterances. Isocrates had already disclaimed the Polycratean allegation that Alcibiades was ever a disciple of Socrates, making it quite clear that this particular charge was nothing other than a malicious invention of Polycrates. The Socrates whom Polycrates indicts so viciously, and whom Xenophon defends so valiantly, seems to have been primarily a product of the earliest Socratic literature. Neither Plato's Apology, nor other earlier writings, nor Xenophon's Socratica could have been the source used by Polycrates. Antisthenes, much more than Plato, was commonly considered a true Socratic by his contemporaries and, hence, as the one author who could be expected to adhere faithfully to the teachings of Socrates.
