I know that I have no wisdom, small or great." He asked nothing for his teaching. He went as far as to humbly deny that he even was a teacher, but rather a ". "midwife" who gave birth to knowledge in others." .
Many saw him as ".the wisest and justest man of that time.," who went against the grain of society in an effort to instruct others through what is referred to as the Socratic Method, a form of dialogue involving a series of questions and answers. This method caused men to think about themselves, perhaps a little more deeply than they may have done on their own. Those who were not posturing on pride and arrogance in the public eye had nothing to fear from hearing and giving consideration to what Socrates had to say. Of course, there were many who felt exactly the opposite.
In his efforts to assist man in educating himself, he often exposed people for being less than they actually were (or less than what they thought of themselves). Throughout his lifetime, men he confronted who were arrogant and vain accused him of corruption. In his apology, more appropriately termed his "defense," Socrates begins by attempting to shed some light on the nature of these accusers. Although the accusations which brought him to trial were of more recent times, he explains to the court these claims stemmed from the slanderous tone of elder accusers, who ".began when you were children, and took possession of your minds with their falsehoods." This slander had, ironically, corrupted the ideas of the young against him, having caused them to view his teachings with suspicion ever since they were old enough to understand about such things. Just as he was accused of being a corrupter of youth who, as Meletus observes, ".says that the sun is stone, and the moon earth.," so was he implicating his accusers of old of being corrupters of youth against him.
The charge of his being impious seems ludicrous, considering the Oracle at Delphi claimed that of all men, he was wisest.
