plato not part of the socratic entourage or inner circle at the beginning of the plato and socrates section of the article someone had said plato made himself seem as though he were part of the socratic entourage but never says so explicitly in the apology plato distances himself from the inner circle i believe this involves a misunderstanding of how plato represents himself in the apology i would not be prepared to say that plato considered himself part of socrates' entourage or socrates' inner circle but that's only because it's not clear what whoever wrote this part of the article means by entourage or inner circle is it made clear elsewhere in plato's dialogues who did belong to the inner circle so far as i know plato never mentions an inner circle but he certainly portrays himself in the apology as one of socrates' young devoted followers in quite explicit terms in fact given this fact i think it's simply misleading to suggest that plato somehow went out of his way to distance himself from socrates or socrates' devoted followers so i've edited this part of the article accordingly including textual citations comment if you wish