How did the rulers of Athens respond to Socrates' questioning of popular beliefs?

They condemned him to death.

The correct answer is Option 3 - They condemned him to death.

The rulers of Athens condemned Socrates to death for his challenging of popular beliefs about society, religion, and politics.

In ancient Greece, in the city of Athens, Socrates was described as the ‘wisest man’. He was known for questioning and challenging popularly held beliefs about society, religion and politics. For this he was condemned to death by the rulers of Athens. His student Plato wrote extensively about the life and ideas of Socrates. In his book ‘The Republic’, he created the character Socrates and through him examined the question – what is justice? The book opens with a dialogue between Socrates and Cephalus. In the course of this dialogue Cephalus and his friends come to recognise that their understanding of justice is inadequate and unacceptable. The important thing in this is that Socrates uses reason to reveal the limitations and inconsistencies in a given point of view. His adversaries eventually admit that the views they had held and lived by could not be sustained.