Socrates was born into a poor family in the southern suburbs of Athens around 470 BC. At the head of the Delian League, a coalition of cities, she emerged victorious in the war against the Persians.
During the Peloponnesian War which pitted Athens against its rival Sparta, he was rich enough to be a hoplite, a heavy infantryman. At that time, every citizen bought his own military equipment. Socrates impresses with his intelligence, his refusal of social conventions and his way of addressing people to make them think.