Someone may wonder why I go about in private,
giving advice and busying myself with the concerns of others, but do not venture
to come forward in public and advise the state. I will tell you the reason of this.
You have often heard me speak of an oracle or sign which comes to me, and is the divinity which
Meletus ridicules in the indictment. This sign I have had ever since I was a child. The sign is a
voice which comes to me and always forbids me to do something which I am going to do,
but never commands me to do anything, and this is what stands in the way of my being a politician.
And rightly, as I think. For I am certain, O men of Athens, that if I had engaged in politics,
I should have perished long ago and done no good either to you or to myself.
And don’t be offended at my telling you the truth: for the truth is that no man
who goes to war with you or any other multitude, honestly struggling against the commission of
unrighteousness and wrong in the state, will save his life; he who will really fight for the right,
if he would live even for a little while, must have a private station and not a public one.
I can give you as proofs of this, not words only, but deeds, which you value more than words. Let
me tell you a passage of my own life, which will prove to you that I should never have yielded to
injustice from any fear of death, and that if I had not yielded I should have died at once.
I will tell you a story--tasteless, perhaps, and commonplace, but nevertheless true.
The only office of state which I ever held, O men of Athens, was that of senator;
the tribe Antiochis, which is my tribe, had the presidency at the trial of the generals
who had not taken up the bodies of the slain after the battle of Arginusae;
and you proposed to try them all together, which was illegal, as you all thought afterwards;
but at the time I was the only one of the Prytanes who was opposed to the illegality, and I gave my
vote against you; and when the orators threatened to impeach and arrest me, and have me taken away,
and you called and shouted, I made up my mind that I would run the risk, having law
and justice with me, rather than take part in your injustice because I feared imprisonment and death.
This happened in the days of the democracy. But when the oligarchy of the Thirty was in power,
they sent for me and four others into the rotunda, and bade us bring Leon the Salaminian from
Salamis, as they wanted to execute him. This was a specimen of the sort of commands which they were
always giving with the view of implicating as many as possible in their crimes; and then I showed,
not in words only, but in deed, that, if I may be allowed to use such an expression, I cared
not a straw for death, and that my only fear was the fear of doing an unrighteous or unholy thing.
For the strong arm of that oppressive power did not frighten me into doing wrong;
and when we came out of the rotunda the other four went to Salamis and fetched Leon,
but I went quietly home. For which I might have lost my life, had not the
power of the Thirty shortly afterwards come to an end. And to this many will witness.
Now do you really imagine that I could have survived all these years, if I had led a
public life, supposing that like a good man I had always supported the right and had made justice,
as I ought, the first thing? No, indeed, men of Athens, neither I nor any other. But I have
been always the same in all my actions, public as well as private, and never have
I yielded any base compliance to those who are slanderously termed my disciples or to any other.
For the truth is that I have no regular disciples: but if anyone likes to come and hear me while I am
pursuing my mission, whether he be young or old, he may freely come. Nor do I converse with those
who pay only, and not with those who do not pay; but anyone, whether he be rich or poor,
may ask and answer me and listen to my words; and whether he turns out to be a bad man or
a good one, that cannot be justly laid to my charge, as I never taught him anything.
And if anyone says that he has ever learned or heard anything from me in private which
all the world has not heard, I should like you to know that he is speaking an untruth.
But I shall be asked, “Why do people delight in continually conversing with you?” I have told
you already, Athenians, the whole truth about this: they like to hear the cross-examination
of the pretenders to wisdom; there is amusement in this. And this is a duty which the God has
imposed upon me, as I am assured by oracles, visions, and in every sort of way in which the
will of divine power was ever signified to anyone. This is true, O Athenians; or, if not true, would
be soon refuted. For if I am really corrupting the youth, and have corrupted some of them already,
those of them who have grown up and have become sensible that I gave them bad advice in the days
of their youth should come forward as accusers and take their revenge; and if they do not like
to come themselves, some of their relatives, fathers, brothers, or other kinsmen, should say
what evil their families suffered at my hands. Now is their time. Many of them I see in the court.
There is Crito, who is of the same age and of the same deme with myself; and there is Critobulus his
son, whom I also see. Then again there is Lysanias of Sphettus, who is the father of Aeschines--he
is present; and also there is Antiphon of Cephisus, who is the father of Epignes;
and there are the brothers of several who have associated with me. There is Nicostratus the
son of Theosdotides, and the brother of Theodotus (now Theodotus himself is dead, and therefore he,
at any rate, will not seek to stop him); and there is Paralus the son of Demodocus,
who had a brother Theages; and Adeimantus the son of Ariston, whose brother Plato is present;
and Aeantodorus, who is the brother of Apollodorus, whom I also see.
I might mention a great many others, any of whom Meletus should have produced as witnesses
in the course of his speech; and let him still produce them, if he has forgotten--I will make
way for him. And let him say, if he has any testimony of the sort which he can produce.
Nay, Athenians, the very opposite is the truth. For all these are ready to witness on behalf of
the corrupter, of the destroyer of their kindred, as Meletus and Anytus call me; not the corrupted
youth only--there might have been a motive for that--but their uncorrupted elder relatives. Why
should they too support me with their testimony? Why, indeed, except for the sake of truth
and justice, and because they know that I am speaking the truth, and that Meletus is lying.
Well, Athenians, this and the like of this is nearly all the defence which I have to
offer. Yet a word more. Perhaps there may be someone who is offended at me,
when he calls to mind how he himself, on a similar or even a less serious occasion,
had recourse to prayers and supplications with many tears, and how he produced his children in
court, which was a moving spectacle, together with a posse of his relations and friends;
whereas I, who am probably in danger of my life, will do none of these things.
Perhaps this may come into his mind, and he may be set against me, and vote in anger because
he is displeased at this. Now if there be such a person among you, which I am far from affirming,
I may fairly reply to him: “My friend, I am a man, and like other men, a creature of flesh and blood,
and not of wood or stone, as Homer says; and I have a family, yes, and sons, O Athenians,
three in number, one of whom is growing up, and the two others are still young;
and yet I will not bring any of them hither in order to petition you for an acquittal.”
And why not? Not from any self-will or disregard of you. Whether I am or am not afraid of death is
another question, of which I will not now speak. But my reason simply is that I feel such conduct
to be discreditable to myself, and you, and the whole state. One who has reached my years,
and who has a name for wisdom, whether deserved or not, ought not to debase himself.
At any rate, the world has decided that Socrates is in some way superior to other men. And if
those among you who are said to be superior in wisdom and courage, and any other virtue,
demean themselves in this way, how shameful is their conduct! I have seen men of reputation,
when they have been condemned, behaving in the strangest manner: they seemed to fancy that they
were going to suffer something dreadful if they died, and that they could be immortal if you only
allowed them to live; and I think that they were a dishonor to the state, and that any stranger
coming in would say of them that the most eminent men of Athens, to whom the Athenians themselves
give honor and command, are no better than women. And I say that these things ought not to be done
by those of us who are of reputation; and if they are done, you ought not to permit them;
you ought rather to show that you are more inclined to condemn, not the man who is quiet,
but the man who gets up a doleful scene, and makes the city ridiculous.
But, setting aside the question of dishonor, there seems to be something wrong in petitioning
a judge, and thus procuring an acquittal instead of informing and convincing him. For his duty is,
not to make a present of justice, but to give judgment; and he has sworn that he will judge
according to the laws, and not according to his own good pleasure; and neither he nor
we should get into the habit of perjuring ourselves--there can be no piety in that.
Do not then require me to do what I consider dishonorable and impious and wrong,
especially now, when I am being tried for impiety on the indictment of Meletus. For if,
O men of Athens, by force of persuasion and entreaty, I could overpower your oaths,
then I should be teaching you to believe that there are no gods, and convict myself,
in my own defence, of not believing in them. But that is not the case; for I do believe
that there are gods, and in a far higher sense than that in which any of my accusers believe
in them. And to you and to God I commit my cause, to be determined by you as is best for you and me.