Socrates showed by deeds as well as words on the day of the Assembly that he stood for the rule of law and against the arbitrary actions of a democracy out of control.  The passions of the moment prevailed, as they did too often in the Assembly of Athens, particularly in the waning days of the Peloponnesian War.  There was no Pericles (senior) to temper the moods of the masses.  Demagogues such as Cleophon and Callixeinus told the crowds what they wanted to hear and encouraged them to see themselves as above the law.  They undermined free speech in the Assembly by threatening to include advocates for the defendants among the defendants.  The majority was willing to commit judicial murder against its enemies.  Debate was replaced with intimidation as the Assembly turned into a mob.

            Having acted in haste, the people of Athens later repented at leisure.  Callixeinus was subsequently arrested and imprisoned with some of his colleagues.  Lawless man that he was, he escaped prison and fled Athens.[28]  But the damage was done.  A sword hung over the generals of Athens, and over the deliberations of the Assembly, from this day forward.  Henceforth, when an Athenian general lost a battle, he would desert rather than return home to face the Assembly.  The legendary Pericles (senior), who had guided the Athenian democracy through its greatest days, now deceased, had his memory dishonored by the mob, who put his son to death without a fair trial.

            As for Socrates, it was his finest hour.  He stood alone against abuses of power by the masses, immune to the ravings of demagogues and the tumult of assemblymen, a champion of the rule of law.  When six thousand members of the Assembly screamed for his blood, he did not flinch.  For a day he was the most hated man in Athens.  And the most upright.

[28].Xenophon Hellenica 1.7.35; Diodorus Siculus 13.103.1-2.