Anytus

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Anytus was one of the prosecutors of Socrates. The most vehement accuser of Socrates; legend (perhaps unreliable) has it that he was banished from Athens, after the public felt guilty about having Socrates executed. We know that he was one of the leading supporters of the democratic forces in Athens^{[citation needed]} (as opposed the oligarchic forces, who had supported the Thirty Tyrants). Plato also depicts Anytus as an interlocutor in his dialogue the Meno.

Anytus was a powerful, upper-class politician in ancient Athens.^{[citation needed]} However, before Anytus was a politician in Athens, he served as a general in the Peloponnesian war.^{[citation needed]} Anytus lost Pylos to the Spartans during the Peloponnesian war, and thus, he was charged with treason.^{[citation needed]} He was later acquitted by bribing the jury (this is how it is told in several accounts).^{[citation needed]} Anytus curried favor with the Athenians after this by playing a major role in overthrowing the Thirty Tyrants.^{[citation needed]} Even though Anytus lost much money and provisions during this eight month battle, he made no attempts to regain it back; this also helped his reputation with the Athenians.^{[citation needed]} He came from a family of tanners. Anytus’s family got their fortune from the grandfather of Anytus. Anytus was able to have a traditional education because his family could afford it. Anytus wanted his son to receive the same education that he did.

In 403 BCE, Anytus supported the Amnesty of Eucleides, which stated that no one who committed a crime before or during the Thirty Tyrants could be prosecuted.^{[citation needed]}

Anytus had two motivations for prosecuting Socrates:

Socrates constantly criticised the government of which Anytus was a leader. Anytus was concerned that the government remained as it was (a democracy) and not be ruled by a philosopher.^{[citation needed]}
Socrates taught Anytus' son who later became a drunk; Anytus blamed Socrates' teachings for poisoning his son's mind.^{[citation needed]}

Anytus was also one of the many erastae of Alcibiades, whom the youth later grew to despise. On the occasion of a symposium during which the boy entered the room only to make off with half the cups on the table, Anytus defended him. Rather than siding with the guests, who accused Alcibiades of insolence and contempt, Anytus claimed the boy had done him a kindness, since he could just as easily have walked off with all the cups.^[1] Alcibiades later became the eromenos of Socrates.