As the living memory of Socrates faded, these written dialogues preserved him with all of his foibles, strange manners, and charisma. In fact, everything we know about Socrates—his ability to drink his companions under the table, his disheveled appearance, the love he inspired in his students—comes to us through Plato’s dialogues. One other writer, Xenophon, authored Socratic dialogues, but his are less significant. The Socrates we know is Plato’s Socrates, a Socrates transmitted by the written word.
