POLIS: The Trial of Socrates, Part I

POLIS: The Trial of Socrates is a three-part historical graphic novel that takes place in ancient Athens. It's the story of how one of the greatest free thinkers in the ancient world was executed by the era's most democratic city. It also tells the story of how his student Plato transformed from an aristocratic politician into the founder of Western philosophy.

Chapter 1, The Restoration: Defeated by Sparta in the Peloponnesian war, the Athenian democracy has been toppled and replaced by a puppet government known to history as The Thirty Tyrants. Socrates clashes with the unofficial leader of the tyrants, Critias. The latter happens to be the older cousin of Aristocles, or as we know him, Plato.

The Restoration comes to a climax when the exiled democratic forces invade Athens and oust the false government. Socrates risks the battlefield to find a young friend drafted into Critias' army, and in doing so he makes a powerful enemy. Plato fights against the democrats and must choose between defeat and cowardice. In the end, the democracy is restored, and the stage is set for the case against Socrates.