Socrates

Beautifully illustrated graphic novel for fans of history and biography

Athens, 399 BC. In what may be remembered as the first trial for crimes of opinion, Socrates is sentenced to death. Accused of corrupting youth with atheistic doctrines, the philosopher’s line of defense is uncompromising and defiant. He is thus sentenced to drink hemlock by an even larger majority of jurors, and once in prison, awaiting execution, he refuses to flee lest he violate those laws to which he has always been devoted. Socrates was not only one of the best known and most influential philosophers in human history, but also the first martyr for his own ideas. His trial tells how the greatest democracy of the time could have sentenced the best of its citizens to death.

Born in 1965, Francesco Barilli has edited for BeccoGiallo Ilaria Alpi, Il prezzo della verità, Dossier Genova G8, Il delitto Pasolini, Peppino impastato, and un giullare contro la mafia. He contributed to the book Fausto e Iaio. Trent’anni dopo and wrote La piuma e la montagna with Sergio Sinigaglia and vergogna di Stato with Checchino Antonini and Dario Rossi Scuola Diaz. He has written some short comic stories, found in the weekly paper La Lettura del Corriere della Sera, on Linus and Wired. Along with Manuel de Carli, he is the author of Carlo Giuliani, il ribelle di Genova and Il delitto Matteotti. Along with Matteo Fenoglio, he is the author of Piazza Fontana and Piazza della Loggia. He also wrote with Fenoglio a brief essay on the use of graphic novels to tell the story about the massacres in Milan and Brescia, published in Piazza Fontana 43 anni dopo. Along with Sakka, he is the author of Goodbye Marilyn, from which a short animated film of the same name was made, directed by Maria di Razza, and presented as a special event at the XV edition of the ＂Giornate degli Autori＂ during the 75° edition of the Film Festival of Venice.