| Apology | |
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[17a - 18a] [18b - 20c] [20d - 24b] [24c - 25e] [26a - 28a] [28b - 30d] [30e - 31c] [31d - 33b]
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| Some one may wonder why I go about in private giving | Jowett's Notes |
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| advice and busying myself with the concerns of others, but do | The internal sign always forbade him to engage in politics; and if he had done so, he would have perished long ago. | |
| not venture to come forward in public and advise the state. I | ||
| will tell you why. You have heard me speak at sundry times | ||
31d |
and in divers places of an oracle or sign which comes to me, | |
| and is the divinity which Meletus ridicules in the indictment. | ||
| This sign, which is a kind of voice, first began to come to me | ||
| when I was a child; it always forbids but never commands me | ||
| to do anything which I am going to do. This is what deters me | ||
| from being a politician. And rightly, as I think. For I am or | ||
| 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 | ||
31e |
to myself. And do not 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 striving against the many lawless and | ||
| unrighteous deeds which are done in a state, will save his life; | ||
32a |
he who will fight for the right, if he would live even for a brief | |
| space, must have a private station and not a public one. | ||
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| I can give you convincing evidence of what I say, not words | He had shown that he would sooner die than commit injustice at the trial of the generals and under the tyranny of the Thirty. | |
| only, but what you value far more - actions. Let me relate to | ||
| 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 "as I should have refused to yield" I must have died at | ||
| once. I will tell you a tale of the courts, not very interesting | ||
| perhaps, but nevertheless true. The only office of state which I | ||
32b |
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 in a | ||
| body, contrary to law, 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 you called | ||
| and shouted, I made up my mind that I would run the risk, | ||
32c |
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 put him to death. | ||
| This was a specimen of the sort of commands which they | ||
| were always giving with the view of implicating as many as | ||
32d |
possible in their crimes; and then I showed, not in word only | |
| but in deed, that, if I may be allowed to use such an and only | ||
| expression, I cared not a straw for death, and that my great | ||
| care was lest I should do 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, and not the | ||
32e |
power of the Thirty shortly afterwards come to an end. And | |
| many will witness to my words. | ||
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| Now do you really imagine that I could have survived all man | He is always talking to the citizens, but he teaches nothing; he takes no pay and has no secrets. | |
| these years, if I had led a public life, supposing that like a good | ||
| I had always maintained the right and had made justice as I | ||
| ought, the first thing? No indeed, men of Athens, neither I | ||
33a |
nor any other man. 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. Not that I have any regular one, | ||
| disciples. But if any one likes to come and hear me while I am | ||
| pursuing my mission, whether he be young or old, he is not | ||
33b |
excluded. Nor do I converse only with those who pay; but any | |
| 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, neither result can be justly imputed to me; for I | ||
| never taught or professed to teach him anything. And if any | ||
| one says that he has ever learned or heard anything from me in | ||
| private which all the world has not heard, let me tell you that | ||
| he is lying. | ||
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