In 406 B.C., eight generals of the Athenian navy were brought to trial for abandoning survivors of a shipwreck after the great battle of Arginusae. The public clamored for blood; and the state, spreading a wave of terror, intimidated the assembly that was then trying the generals. They were condemned to death. Only Socrates dared to speak out against the abuse of law, identifying the generals as victims of an insecure government. “The true teacher,” he had said, “must offer himself as a model of what he preaches.”