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The Death of Socrates Condemned to death by an Athenian jury, Socrates declined to go into exile, voluntarily drank a cup of poison hemlock, and died in 399 B.C.E. in the presence of his friends. The dramatic scene was famously described by Plato and much later was immortalized on canvas by the French painter Jacques-Louis David in 1787. ( The Death of Socrates, 1787. Oil on canvas, 51 x 77¼ in. [129.5 x 196.2 cm.]. Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Collection, Wolfe Fund, 1931 [31.45]./The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, USA/Image copyright © The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Image source: Art Resource, NY)