Chronica (35 page)

Socrates, 470?-399 BC
. 
No texts written by Socrates have survived or are alluded to by ancient authors; all that we know of him are from the writings of his students, mainly Plato, and a few contemporaries.  Socrates taught that the pursuit of knowledge was the highest virtue, and knowledge was best obtained through continuing questioning and dialog.  He was no fan of democracy – in the 
Phaedrus
 
(where Socrates also condemns the written word as conveying only the "pretense of wisdom"), Socrates asks why, if we would not trust a man ignorant of horses to give us advice about horses, should we have confidence in a government composed of everyday people with no philosophic training in understanding good and evil – yet Socrates, condemned by the Athenian democracy on charges of corrupting the youth of the city with his ideas, accepted its death sentence. Indeed, waiting in prison for thirty days for the return of the priest of Apollo from Delos (no death sentences could be carried out in his absence), Socrates refused an offer of escape and refuge made by his old friend Crito.  Socrates explains in the Platonic dialogue of that name that to evade the death sentence would be to put himself above the state, which as a critic of the state he had no desire to do. I. F. Stone in 
The Trial of Socrates 
(1988)
 
argues that Socrates may also have wanted his death penalty carried out as a way of publicly shaming the democracy he hated.  In any case, that was certainly the result, and more than Socrates could ever have envisioned: his death by prescribed hemlock in 399 BC redounds as one of the worst cases in history of a dissident destroyed by government, all the worse because that government was the world's first-known democracy.

Synesius of Cyrene, 370-414 AD
. Student of Hypatia (see above for Hypatia) and her devoted disciple. Christian Bishop of Ptolemais, 410-414.  Synesius was earlier in Athens and Constantinople.  His letters to Hypatia show a deep interest in science and invention, and a profound affection for Hypatia.  One of his last letters to Hypatia, written in 413, reproaches her for not writing to him, and avers that, if she had, he would be "rejoicing at your happiness".  Whether or not his feelings for Hypatia were carnal, and whether or not they were consummated, is unknown.

Tesla, Nikola, 1856-1943 AD
. A prolific and experimental inventor of devices (some 300 patents worldwide) using electricity, radio waves, remote control, and X-rays, most of which never attained widespread commercial success. Born in Serbia, Tesla came to New York City to work for Thomas Edison in 1884 (see above for Edison). The two soon fell out over a dispute about Edison's amount of payment for Tesla's improvement of Edison's motors and generators. Tesla resigned and the two became bitter rivals for most of Edison's and the rest of Tesla's life, to the point that Tesla wrote a scathing obituary when Edison died in 1931, criticizing Edison's "utter disregard of the most elementary rules of hygiene" and claiming his method of invention "was inefficient in the extreme." Tesla was on the cover of
Time
magazine the same year. He did much of his later work at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel (see above for Astor), where he lived. Tesla achieved pop-cult status by the end of the 20
^th
century, mostly because of his "peace ray" or death-ray weapon, which he described but never built, operating as a high-energy particle gun. In the 21
^st
century, conspiracy theories about "weather weapons" – use of tornados, for example, as weapons – have called upon Tesla's work for support. The all-electric and ergonomically sophisticated "Telsa" automobile was named after him in 2006.

Twain, Mark (pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens), 1835-1910 AD
. Celebrated American author, best known for
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
(1876),
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
(1884), and
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
(1889), a time-travel fantasy novel. He was known in the last decade of his life – the first decade of the 20
^th
century – for strolling down Fifth Avenue in New York City, resplendent in his all-white suit.

Wells, Herbert George, "H. G." 1866-1946 AD
. One of the deans or "fathers" of science fiction, along with Jules Verne. Wells'
The Time Machine
(1895) – his first novel, based on his short story "The Chronic Argonauts" (1888) – established time travel as a major genre of science fiction that continues and thrives to this day, as well as the appelation "time machine" as the standard way of describing a device that transports its passenger to the past or the future.

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