Socrates' last words were about a rooster he owed.

399 BC

After drinking the hemlock he said: 'Crito, I owe a cock to Asclepius; will you remember to pay the debt?' Asclepius, god of healing, was given a cock in thanks for a cure.

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The event

• Trial of Socrates399 BC · Athens. An Athenian jury sentenced the philosopher Socrates to death for impiety and corrupting the youth; he drank hemlock. His pupil Plato immortalised him in dialogues, and the Socratic method became a foundation of Western philosophy.

4th century BC

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