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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Speech III: After the Trial |
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(13) To the Jurors
Who Condemned Him |
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Not much time will be gained, O Athenians, in return for the | Jowett's Notes |
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evil name which you will get from the detractors of the city, | |||
Juror
Ballots: Top (guilty) and Bottom (acquittal) |
who will say that you killed | They will be accused of killing a wise man. | |
Socrates,a wise man: for they | |||
will call me wise, even although I | |||
am not wise, when they want to | |||
reproach you. If you had waited | Why could they not wait a few years? | ||
a little while, your desire would | |||
have been fulfilled in the course | |||
of nature. For I am far advanced | |||
in years, as you may perceive, | |||
and not far from death. I am | |||
38d | speaking now not to all of you but only to those who | ||
have condemned me to death. And I have another thing | |||
to say to them: You think that I was convicted because I had | |||
no words of the sort which would have procured my acquittal - | |||
I mean, if I had thought fit to leave nothing undone or unsaid. | |||
Not so; the deficiency which led to my conviction was not of | |||
words - certainly not. But I had not the boldness or impudence | |||
or inclination to address you as you would have liked me to | |||
38e | do, weeping and wailing and lamenting, and saying and doing | ||
many things which you have been accustomed to hear from | |||
others, and which, as I maintain, are unworthy of me. I | |||
thought at the time that I ought not to do anything common or | |||
mean when in danger: nor do I now repent of the style of my | |||
defence; I would rather die having spoken after my manner, | |||
39a | than speak in your manner and live. For neither in war nor yet | ||
at law ought I or any man to use every way of escaping death. | |||
Often in battle there can be no doubt that if a man will throw | |||
away his arms, and fall on his knees before his pursuers, he | |||
may escape death; and in other dangers there are other ways of | |||
escaping death, if a man is willing to say and do anything. The | |||
difficulty, my friends, is not to avoid death, but to avoid | |||
unrighteousness; for that runs faster than death. I am old and | |||
move slowly, and the slower runner has overtaken me, and my | |||
accusers are keen and quick, and the faster runner, who is | |||
39b | unrighteousness, has overtaken them. And now I depart hence | ||
condemned by you to suffer the penalty of death, - they too go | |||
their ways condemned by the truth to suffer the penalty of | |||
villainy and wrong; and I must abide by my award - let them | |||
abide by theirs. I suppose that these things may be regarded as | |||
fated, - and I think that they are well. | |||
39c | And now, O men who have condemned me, I would fain you | ||
prophesy to you; for I am about to die, and in the hour of | |||
death men are gifted with prophetic power. And I prophesy to | |||
who are my murderers, that immediately after my departure | |||
punishment far heavier than you have inflicted on me will | |||
surely await you. Me you have killed because you wanted to | |||
escape the accuser, and not to give an account of your lives. | |||
But that will not be as you suppose: far otherwise. For I say | They are about to slay Socrates because he has been their accuser: other accusers will rise up and denounce them more vehemently. | ||
39d | that there will be more accusers of you than there are now; be | ||
accusers whom hitherto I have restrained: and as they are | |||
younger they will be more inconsiderate with you, and you will | |||
more offended at them. If you think that by killing men you | |||
can prevent some one from censuring your evil lives, you are | |||
mistaken; that is not a way of escape which is either possible | |||
or honorable; the easiest and the noblest way is not to be | |||
disabling others, but to be improving yourselves. This is the | |||
39e | prophecy which I utter before my departure to the judges who | ||
have condemned me. | |||
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