单项选择题

Good morning, students. Let me start my lecture with a briefing about Socrates, the ancient Greek philosopher. He was a funny-looking man with a cheerful face, good-natured and a great talker. He was described by his student, the great philosopher Plato, as "the best and most just and wisest man." Yet, this same man was condemned to death for his beliefs.
Socrates was condemned for not believing in the recognized gods and for corrupting young people. The second charge stemmed from his association with numerous young men who came to Athens from all over the civilized world to study under him.
Socrates’ method of teaching was to ask questions and, by pretending not to know the answers, to press his students into thinking for themselves. His teaching had great influence on all the great Greek and Roman schools of philosophy. Yet, for all his fame and influence, Socrates himself never wrote a word.
Socrates encouraged new ideas and free thinking in the young, and this was frightening to conservative Athenians. They wanted him silenced. Yet, many were probably surprised that he accepted death so readily.
Socrates had the right to ask for a lesser penalty, and he probably could have swayed enough of the slender majority which condemned him. But Socrates, as a firm believer in law, reasoned that it was proper to submit to the death sentence. So, he calmly accepted his fate and drank a cup of poison in the presence of his grief-stricken friends and students.

How did Plato describe Socrates().

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