one hears of socrates committing suicide for i forget what and also for “corrupting the youth of athens”. was this because he was a bit of a fly in the ointment or because his corrupting them had more to do with pederasty?
He was corrupting them with his ideas.
As for pederasty (involving young teenagers) , it was a culturally accepted (and expected) behavior in ancient Greece, so it probably couldn’t have a been a basis for an accusation of corruption, anyway.
Socrates may well have had sexual relations with young men who followed him, but that was neither unusual nor frowned upon in ancient Athens.
When the Athenians accused Socrates of “corrupting” the youth, they weren’t concerned with sex. Rather, they were concerned that he was stirring up young men to rebel against Athenian democracy. Some of Socrates’ former students HAD attempted to overthrown Athenian democracy, and it was not unreasonable to suppose that Socrates had been responsible for filling their heads with notions like an elite group of virtuous guardians (“philosopher kings”) being the proper rulers of Greek society.
In short, Athenians weren’t worried that Socrates was screwing their sons. They worried that he was screwing with their minds, and trying to turn them against their government.
Just to expand on what astorian wrote:
According to Plato in the Symposium, Socrates’ lover was the young general Alcibiades, not any young men. Alcibaides, after a complicated legal affair after he was accused of sacriligeous vandalism, fled to Sparta and became a traitor against Athens. Because he was enamoured with Socrates, the Athenians blamed him for the betrayal commited by Alcibiades.
Aristophanes’ comic play Clouds, which makes hilarious reading 2500 years after it ws first written, is a satire against Socrates that explain a little of the popular opinion against him. In the play, a young man decides to learn from Socrates at his “thought-shop”, and then goes home and beats his father up. While it’s doubtful whether such things were taught, the impact of his teachings on the youth of Athens against the status quo would have been the same. The play was written 20-25 years before Socrates was sentenced to death, so he had a pretty long history of spreading “dangerous” ideas.
UnuMondo
What was the average lifespan then anyhow? May not have had much choice 
The lifespan of people who survived past childhood and were relatively wealthy wasn’t much more lower in the past than now.
The average lifespans which are given for ancient eras are very low because they include the infant/childhood mortality, which was extremely high. If one children dies at birth and his two brothers die at 60, the average lifespan is 40 years. But the average lifespan of the two guys who reached adulhood is still 60. Men had higher lifespan too, since they weren’t at risk of dying during childbirth, and such deaths were very common for women (especially since they had many children). Finally, if you were wealthy enough, better nourished, etc…your life expectancy was higher too…
So, a man belonging to the upper class and who survived past childhood could expect to live a relatively long live during all periods of history, “average lifespans” notwithstanding. That would certainly be the case for Socrates.
" Was Socrates a pedophile?"
Maybe, but only if you apply our modern laws to him, but back then they had another set of laws, right ?
Socrates was old, but not ancient, and was not on death’s door when he was condemned to be executed. He still undoubtedly had some healthy and productive years ahead of him. Still, he chose not to flee Athens or to fight his execution, though he almost certainly could have.
Why? We can only speculate. I.F. Stone (not one of my favorite people) offered an interesting theory: Socrates knew he was finished. He’d tried to inspire an overthrow of Athenian democracy (he’d have preferred a more Spartan state), and failed. He stood now as an old man with no power, who commanded little respect, and who was regarded as either a fool or a traitor. In Stone’s view, he took the hemlock because he didn’t have all that much left to live for.
It doesn’t take a modern historian to say that. Plato said the same thing in the Crito. In that dialogue, Socrates is visited by a friend who tries to convince him to escape. Socrates explains that it is important not just to live, but to live well. If he fled into exile, he would no longer be able to act as the “gadfly of Athens” and make people aware of their ignorance so that they could really start learning.
UnuMondo
Right.
Much like slavery in 17th, 18th and 19th century America, along with an assortment of laws pertaining to women, children, and recent immigrants.