Strauss, Leo, "On Plato's Apology of Socrates and Crito," Studies in Platonic Political Philosophy, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1983.

Excerpt:

The Apology of Socrates is the only Platonic work with Socrates in the title. Yet Socrates is visibly or invisibly the chief character in all Platonic dialogues: all Platonic dialogues are “apologies” of or for Socrates. But the Apology of Socrates is the portal through which we enter the Platonic kosmos: it gives an account of Socrates’ whole life, of his whole way of life, to the largest multitude, to the authoritative multitude, to the city of Athens before which he was accused of a capital crime; it is the dialogue of Socrates with the city of Athens.

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