What kind of sensations I have experienced, o Athenians, hearing the arguments of my accusers, I really cannot say; for my part, I can assure that almost forgot about myself while they spoke with such persuasive force and in such a convincing way.
However of true, they have said nothing at all, if I have to say so clearly. But among the many falsehoods that have been told you about one in particular, I have been surprised: they maintain that you should beware of the risk of being deceived by me as a very skilful and astute person in speaking, then they have not really felt ashamed in supporting something for which they will be denied by the facts, when it will become clear that I am not very able to speak, and such a statement seemed to me really risky unless they call a person who speaks the truth skilful; if this were meant, I could certainly accept to be called a skilled storyteller, but it is not so.
Therefore, I say it openly, they have made a statement that does not contain even a minimum of truth; instead, you will hear the whole truth from me.
But, by Zeus, O citizens of Athens, do not expect from me speeches full of refined phrases and embellished with elegant words, as they do, but unprepared arguments, a bit like it happens and in everyday form; I simply believe that what I say are right things, and therefore none of you think of listening to anything different. On the other hand, it would not even be appropriate, citizens, for me to present myself to you at my age as a little boy who plays with words, and indeed, Athenian citizens, I beg you decisively and would like you to grant me one thing: if you hear me defend myself in the same way as many of you have heard me speak in the square, in front of the counters of money changers and merchants or in places of this kind, do not be surprised by this and do not interrupt me even for this.
The question is just like this: for the first time in my life, at more than seventy, I find myself in court, and therefore I am not at all familiar with the language used here. You would certainly be indulgent, if I were by chance a foreigner and spoke in that language, for the fact that I spoke with simplicity and in a familiar way, the same thing also seems to me appropriate to ask you: to allow me to speak as I am accustomed to and this may be a worse language, but also better than that of my accusers, examining only whether I say right things or not, this intact is the function of the judge, just as that of the speaker is to tell the truth.

In the first place, therefore it is right, Athenian citizens, that I should defend myself against the accusations and lies against me that are older than the old accusers; and then move on to examine the most recent accusations and the latest accusers.
There are so many in front of you and they have been plotting for a long time accusing me, without saying anything true, and I fear them more than Anitus and his entourage, although these are also really fearsome. But those are even worse influencing you from a young age, they aimed to make you believe things in which there is no truth, about a certain Socrates, a sage, who is interested in investigating celestial phenomena and researches all the subterranean ones, then skilled in making weaker reasoning stronger. The accusers who have spread these rumors about me are the most fearsome, O Athenian citizens, because those who listen to them think that those who are driven to devote themselves to such research do not believe in the existence of gods. There are also many of these accusers and they have been acting in the dark for a long time, then they began to tell these things to you at that age when, being children or teenagers, it is easier to be influenced, especially if you make really unfair accusations and without the presence of the person concerned or someone that take the his defence.
But the most incredible thing of all is that it is not even possible to know or say their names, except for a few playwrights, if one can say so; then there are also those who, driven by envy, have used the weapon of slander, those who, convinced by others, have committed themselves in order to convince other people, all of these are the most difficult accusers to identify; for it is not possible to bring them here to trial or to convince them that they are wrong, but since it is necessary for me to defend myself, I am obliged to fight almost shadows and to make refutations without being answered by anyone. Consider, therefore, that my accusers have been of two kinds: recent, and long-standing, those of whom I am now speaking, so agree with me that I must first defend myself against these, since you too have heard them accuse me before, and much more heavily than those who came after.

Now I am forced to defend myself and to try to eradicate from you in such a short time a false belief that has instead had a very long time to take root. But I would like, assuming that it is useful to both me and you, that I could get something more out of my defense, even if I think it is difficult and I do not miss the heart of the matter. Anyway it goes as the divinity pleases, and in any case the laws must be obeyed and I must defend myself.

Let us therefore begin again to evaluate what is the accusation from which the false opinion about me arose and on which Meletus based himself in presenting his written complaint against me. So, with what arguments did my detractors slander me? In this regard, it is necessary to define their accusation as if it were an act sworn by formal accusers: "Socrates commits a crime by investigating subterranean and celestial phenomena; to make the weaker arguments stronger and to teach these things to others, these and similar things".
The accusation is more or less posed in this way, and you yourselves have had the opportunity to verify these things as spectators of the comedy of Aristophanes, where a certain Socrates is staged who says that he walks in the clouds saying boasting and many other nonsense, of which I do not know at all and not even a little. Let us be clear: I do not want to discredit such a science and those who support it, if there is anyone who is an expert in this matter, and I say this so that I do not happen to find myself once again entangled by Meletus in a process of this kind, but the fact is simply that I have nothing to do with such speculations. I call upon most of you to testify to this, and I ask you to exchange information with one another and to declare it, addressing all those, and there are many of you who have ever heard me speak: tell me, then, if you have heard me talk much or little about such subjects!
From what will emerge from your consultation you will realize that the other things that many say about me are also of this type.
But none of these things are true, just as it is false if you have heard someone say that I am committed to instructing others and demand a monetary reward. It seems remarkable to me that there should be someone who can instruct other men, as Gorgias from Leontini, Prodicus of Ceos, or a Hippias of Elis are able to do so. In fact, citizens, each of them, going from city to city, manages to persuade young people who could attend without spending money whoever they want, to abandon them to spend time with them, paying for teaching and also obtaining gratitude. I then received news that another scholar, a native of Paros, is also here in Athens; in fact, I came across by chance Callias, son of Hipponicus, a man who alone gave the sophists more money than all the others put together.
I therefore asked him, since he has two sons: "If these two sons of yours, O Callias, I told him, were foals or calves, we should take one who stays with them and is able to make them beautiful and handsome in the virtue suitable for these species, or an expert in horsemanship, to be clear, or in agriculture. But since they are two young people, what teacher do you have in mind to take for them? Who is competent for the virtue of this kind, in relation both to the individual and to social life? I think you have taken the problem into consideration, having two children! Is there anyone who knows about it, I told him, or not?" "Of course!" he said. "Who is he," I asked then, "and where does he come from, and how much does he teach?" "Eveno, he replied, and he wants five minas". And I thought that Eveno of Paros, O Socrates, must be a happy person, if he really possesses this art and teaches so cheaply. I would be for myself, I would brag and be proud of it, if I knew this science, but I don't know it, O Athenian citizens.
Now someone of you may be perhaps to object: "But in short, Socrates, what is your activity? Where did the charges against you come from? Certainly not without you doing anything more than what others do, that is if you did not behave differently from how everyone else behaves! Tell us, then, what it is so that we may not examine you rashly". If one spoke like this he would say, in my opinion, right things, so I will try to clarify where the name of sage and the related calumnies came from.
So listen. Perhaps it will seem to some that I am joking, but bear in mind that I will tell you the whole truth.
I, Athenians, for no other reason do I find this appellation on me than for a very particular wisdom. What wisdom is this? Probably of the one that is considered human; perhaps it is precisely this one in which I risk being wise, while the others I mentioned earlier could be wise in a higher wisdom, however, I really don't know what to say as far as I'm concerned; in fact, I know nothing about it, and whoever says otherwise is lying and with the aim of spreading calumnies about me; but do not make a noise against me, Athenians, if it seems that I am exaggerating; in fact, the speech I am about to make to you is not mine, because it belongs to one who, when he speaks, is worthy of consideration. To testify to my wisdom, if there is any wisdom in me, and whatever it may be, I will call the divinity of Delphi. You know if I'm not mistaken Cherophon; He was my friend from a young age, and a friend of your popular part and, together with you, he took part in this exile and returned with you. You know for sure what Cherophon was like, how passionate he was about whatever he did. So once he went to Delphi, he dared to ask the oracle a question about the matter we are talking about. I have already asked you not to make noise about what I tell you. So he asked the Pythia if there was anyone wiser than I, and the Pythia answered that there was anyone wiser.
His brother, who is here here, will testify to you about this, because Cherophon is dead.

Consider, then, the reasons why I relate this story: for I am trying to show you where the slander against me came from. After learning of the matter, I made these reflections: "what does the divinity mean and what does it hide under its enigmas? I, as far as I am concerned, am well aware that I am neither wise nor much. So what do you mean by saying that I am the wisest of all? He certainly does not lie, because this is not lawful for the divinity". So for a long time I remained in uncertainty about the meaning of the answer; then I dedicated myself hard to trying to solve the enigma.
I went to one of those who enjoy the reputation of being wise in order to find elements to refute the oracle, if it can be done, pointing out this fact to him: "He is certainly more wise than me, while it was said that I was the most wise of all". In dialogue with him, it is not necessary for me to say his name, and it will suffice to say that he was one of the politicians from whom I came the reflection of which I am about to refer to you, and when questioning him it seemed to me that it seemed to him, and also to many others, in particular to himself, to be wise, but in reality he was not. So I tried to make him understand that he thought he was wise, and that in reality he was not. For this reason I attracted his hatred and also that of many of those present, meanwhile leaving I reflected to myself that in fact I was wiser than that man; in fact, each of us is likely to know nothing beautiful and good, but he thinks he knows something, while he does not; I, on the other hand, not only don't know, but I don't even think I know, and therefore it seems to me that I am a little wiser than him precisely because of this minimal difference, that I don't think I know what I don't know. So, I went to another one of those who had the fame to be wiser than him, and I got the same feelings. And even in this case I got his resentment and that of many others.

After this, therefore, I proceeded methodically, having had these experiments, to have other similar ones, although I realized with pain and fear that I would derive only hatred from them; However, it seemed necessary to take more account of the divinity's response, so I had to keep going around to understand what the oracle meant by referring to those who seemed to know something. And damn, if I have to tell you the truth, Athenian citizens, I have really experienced the sensations I am about to tell you: precisely those who were held in greater esteem than the others have been, so to speak, in my researches according to the word of the divinity, the least endowed with wisdom of all; those who seemed so modest were the nearest to being wise.
I must therefore point out to you the great effort that I have taken on with continuous wanderings, to understand how to make the oracle's prophecy irrefutable for me.
After talking with politicians; in fact, I went to poets, both to those who write tragedies, and to those who compose dithyrambs, and to others to try to understand directly that I was more ignorant than they. Examining their poems, especially those that seemed to me to be better elaborated, I wondered what they had meant to tell you, in order to learn something from them too. I am ashamed to tell you things as they are in reality, but I must speak: all those present, so to speak, were close to being able to express themselves better than they were on those same verses they had seen. I therefore realized once again quickly even with respect to poets who did not compose out of wisdom, but out of a sort of natural disposition and under inspiration as soothsayers and prophets do. For they say many beautiful things, but they know nothing of what they say. Something like this was it seemed to happen to poets too, and at the same time I realized that they, precisely because of poetry, believe that they are the wisest of men in other things as well, while they are not. I therefore left them with the conviction that I am a minimum superior to them for the same reason that they are compared to politicians. At last I turned to the artists, knowing full well that I was quite ignorant, as it were, of their art, whereas I supposed that they knew many beautiful things. To tell the truth, I was not mistaken, for they knew many things well that I did not know, and they were wiser than I was in this respect. But even the best craftsmen seemed to have the same defect as the poets: for the fact that each was able to do a job well, each believed that he was very expert even in matters of the greatest importance, and this presumption obscured their real knowledge. So I wondered, referring to the oracle's response, whether it suited me to be as I am, that is, completely ignorant of the things they know, but not ignorant of my ignorance as they are of their own, or to prefer to have both characteristics found in them. And in the end I judged it to be appropriate for myself and by the oracle that it was okay for me to stay as I am.
For this quest, Athenian citizens, I have attracted many enmities, the most insidious and cunning, from which arose numerous calumnies as well as the title of sage. In fact, those who were present at my discussions from time to time believed that I was an expert in those matters about which I may happen to refute another by making him understand that he is ignorant; instead, Athenians, it is only the divinity who actually ends up revealing himself to be wise by affirming with that response that the wisdom of men counts for little or nothing. It also seems that the deity does not expressly say so of Socrates, but that he has used my name as an example to say: "O men of you the wisest is he who, like Socrates, has recognized in truth, as far as knowledge is concerned, that he is not worthy of anything". For this reason even today I continue in my research and investigation, following the response of the divinity, when I think that someone among the citizens or strangers is wise, then after it does not seem so, I bring other proofs to the response of the divinity showing him that he is not wise and in this commitment of mine I have not had time to do something useful, neither for the city nor for my family, and I live in extreme poverty having dedicated myself totally to the service of the divinity.
In addition to this, it must be added that the young people who follow me, and they are those who have a lot of free time, especially the children of the richest families, feeling that I am of their own free will, are interested with delight in listening to me while I examine men and often imitate me, examining other men in their turn; then I think, they have no difficulty finding a large number of people who think they know something, but know little or nothing. The consequence is that those who are examined in this way end up blaming me and not themselves, and saying that there is a certain Socrates around, a strange man, who corrupts youth. But if someone asks them what they do and teach to corrupt young people, they have nothing to say, because they do not know; but in order not to seem in difficulty they affirm the usual vulgar things that are said about all those who love philosophy, "that Socrates corrupts them by inducing them to take an interest in celestial and subterranean phenomena", "that one must not believe in the gods" and "teaching them to make weaker reasoning appear stronger". I also think that they really don't want to tell the truth, that is, that they want to make people believe they know, but they know nothing.
So, given in my opinion what kind of people they are, ambitious, violent and in large numbers, speaking ill of me in agreement with each other and in a convincing way, they have long and cunningly filled your ears with calumnies. From these they have come out into the open attacking me harshly Meletus, Anitus and Lycon: Meletus spokesman for the resentment of poets, Anitus for that of artisans and politicians, Lycon for that of orators and as I have already mentioned, I would be amazed if I were able to eradicate from you a calumny that has taken root so deeply.
This, however, is the truth that I tell you without hiding the slightest detail or having lied about anything. I also know well, in essence, that it is those I have told that are the reasons that have made me hateful and that are the basis of the slanders spread about me that prove that I am telling the truth; then if you want to verify it now or in the future, you can verify that the story went exactly like that.
As for the accusations brought against me by my oldest accusers, this defense is sufficient for you. Having done this task, I will now try to defend myself against the Meletus accusations, virtuous and patriot man, as he says of himself, and against the most recent accusers.
Let us therefore consider their affidavit again, as if they were different accusers. It goes something like this: Socrates commits the crime of corrupting young people and of not believing in the gods in which the city believes, but in new and foreign deities. That is the accusation and we will therefore have to look at every single aspect of it. So Meletus says that I am guilty of corrupting young people, but I maintain for my part that the culprit is Meletus, because he jokes about serious things and lightly drags people to court, pretending to take care of and be interested in things he has never cared about, and that the matter is just like that I will try to demonstrate to you too.
Now tell me: isn't it true that you care a lot that young people become as good as possible? I do. Come here, then, and tell them who makes them better? Because it is evident that you know, since it is close to your heart; in fact, having discovered how you say who corrupts them, you cite and accuse me by dragging me before this jury; but now instead try to say who makes them better and tell the same jury who it is. Here you see, Meletus, that you are silent and have nothing to say? Don't you think it's a shameful thing and irrefutable proof of what I say, that you never cared at all about the matter? But in short, virtuous man, tell who it is that makes them better?
"The laws"
"But I do not ask you this, my dear, but who is the man who first knows this too, therefore the laws?"
"These are the judges".
"What do you say, Meletus? Are they the people who can educate young people and make them better?"
"Them above all".
"But all of them, or some of them yes and others not?"
"All"
"You say very well, for Hera, and you really make us think of a great abundance of capable educators. So: do those who listen to us here make them better, don't they?"
"Yes, they too".
"And the board members?"
"Also the board members".
"Certainly, Meletus, also those who participate in the Ecclesia, as to say the ecclesiasts corrupt the young! Or are all able to make them better?"
"So, it seems, all the Athenians are able to make the young beautiful and good, except me, who are the only one to corrupt them. Is that what you mean?"
"Yes, I say this definitely".
"You condemned me to a great misfortune! But answer me: do you think things are like this for horses? That all men are able to make them better, while it is only one that ruins them? Or, it is quite the opposite of this, in the sense that one or at least few, that is to say, who is meant to make them better, while most of the people who have to deal with horses and use them, ruin them? Isn't that right, Meletus, about horses and all other animals? It is definitely so, that you and Anitus want to admit it or not. It would be really a great fortune for young people if it were one person able to corrupt them and all the others were them benefited. Needless to insist, Meletus, you have shown enough that you have never worried about young people and clearly reveal your indifference in these matters, which is like saying that you have never dealt with yourself about those things for which you drag me to court.
But still tell us by Zeus, O Meletus, is it better to live among virtuous or evil citizens? Answer, my dear, because I don't ask you anything difficult. And is it not true that the wicked do evil harm those who are normally closest to them and the good of good?"
"Certainly".
"So there's someone who prefers to be harmed instead of favored by the people he hangs out with? Answer, brave man, because the law also orders it to do so. Is there anyone who wants to be harmed?"
"No, definitely".
"Let's proceed: did you drag me here like one who corrupts the young and makes them worse intentionally or unintentionally doing it?"
"You do it for me on purpose".
"So you Meletus, so young, are much wiser than me, now old, since you understand that the bad guys hurt those who hang them and the good of good; instead I am so foolish that I do not even come to understand that, by hurting the people with whom I live near, I can only have it in exchange for evil, since, as you say, I get so much damage on purpose! You can't convince me of this, or Meletus, and I also think no other man can believe you. I am not a corrupter, and even if I were, I would not be a corrupter, so that you would be lying in both cases! And if they are involuntarily, you usually don't mention in court those who commit such mistakes without intention, but you should take it aside; explain where it is wrong and make him reason. It is clear that, learning the lesson, someone like me would stop making the mistakes he makes without wanting to. You, on the other hand, have on purpose always avoided dating and teaching me, you did not want to do it at all and indeed you forced me to present me here, where by law you have to make appear what must be judged for a penalty, not those who need a teaching!
It is already clear by now, Athenian citizens, what I said before, that Meletus of these issues has been concerned little or not at all. In any case, tell us Meletus, what way you think is, I would bribe young people. Or is it already clear according to the indictment you presented, so I would do so by teaching not to worship the gods in which the city believes, but to other and new foreign deities? So don't you claim that I corrupt them with these teachings?"
"It is just what I say".
"Then in the name of these themselves of which we are talking about, or Meletus, explained clearly with me and with those present; in fact, I cannot understand if you support that I teach to believe that there are gods and therefore I also believe in them so I am not at all an atheist, so in this respect I am not guilty, but for another verse I do not believe in the gods of the city, but in others, and this is the thing which you accuse me of, or if you want to say that I do not believe in the existence of the gods at all, and I teach others to do the same?"
"I maintain this, that you do not believe in the existence of the gods and teach it".
"O wonderful Meletus, why do you say these things? Do you mean that I don't think the sun and moon are gods, like other men? But for Zeus, gentlemen judges, he wants to attribute to me the theory that the sun is stone and the moon ground referring to Anaxagoras, so you show that you underestimate those present and to consider them so ignorant that you do not know that the books of Anaxagoras of Clazomene are full of these theories. It is also really great astonishment that young people learn these things from me when it is possible for them to buy them for a single drachma, to say a lot, from the theater and get some stories to make Socrates look bad if he wanted to make believe that these theories, among other things that could be discussed, are his! But, for Zeus, do I look like one who doesn't believe there is any deity?"
"No, for Zeus, you don't really believe it!"
"You say something unbelievable, Meletus, then I'm sure your statement is not credible to yourself". In fact, he, Athenian citizens, it seems to me really insolent and trachoting as usually are young people. It looks like someone who provokes with an enigma of this kind: "Will Socrates, the wise man, understand that I'm joking and I say the opposite of what I think, or will I be able to deceive him and all the others who listen?" In fact, it seems to me that he contradicts himself in the accusation, ending up saying: "Socrates is guilty of the crime of not believing in the gods, but also of believing in it". So it certainly seems to me about someone who wants to joke.

"Evaluate with me, citizens, in what sense it seems to me that it falls into these contradictions and you, or Meletus, answer. And you citizens, please, as I have already asked, do not noisy if I continue with my usual type of method of reasoning. Can there be any person, Meletus, who believes that there are human actions, but that there are no men? Make Meletus answer, citizens, and stop mumbling impatient now a few words now another. There are those who do not believe that horses exist, but do they believe that there are things that concern them? Or do you not believe that there are flautists, but that there are instead compositions for flute? This person doesn't exist, dear. If you don't want to answer, I'll tell you, for you and for those who are listening. But you answer at least what follows. Some believe that there are spiritual manifestations, but do not believe in spirits?"
"That's not possible".
"What courtesy you did to me, answering me even if with difficulty and forced by the judges! So you claim that I believe and teach demonic practices, they are old or new doesn't matter, what matters is that according to what you say I believe these things and you swore it even in the prosecution act. If, therefore, I believe in things that have to do with spirits, it follows that I admit their existence. Isn't that right? I must therefore assume that you agree, since you do not answer. We do not all believe that the spirits are gods or children of gods. Do you agree or not?"
"Certainly".
So if I believe in the existence of spirits, as you say, and the spirits have a kind of divine nature, this would be the reason why I argue that you devise puzzles to joke, when you say that I, not believing in the existence of the gods, recognize the existence of the gods, since I believe that there are spirits. If these are, then, as the species of natural children of the gods, begotten with nymphs or other women from whom they are said to have been born, what man could say that there are the children of the gods, but that the gods do not exist? It would be just as absurd if there were one who believed that mules are the children of horses or donkeys, he did not know about the existence of horses and donkeys. But it is not possible, O Meletus, that you have not filed this charge to put me in this way to the test, or you did not know how to accuse me with a fault that was reliable! That you then manage to convince a man that he also has little intelligence that it is not of the same person to admit things that have to do with spirits and gods and at the same time not to admit to the existence of spirits, of gods and demigods, is not really possible at all.

So, Athenian citizens, I do not seem to need a further defense to show that I am not guilty of Meleto's accusations, and the arguments that I have already presented are enough.
But as to what I said before, know that I aroused the hatred of many people and it is undoubtedly true; this is what ruins me if you condemn me, not Meletus or Anitus, but the calumnies and hatred of so many. They are evils that have also damaged many other men, most of them worthwhile, and I believe that it will happen again in the future: there is no risk that this story will end with me.
Now there might be someone who says to me, "Don't you be ashamed Socrates that you have been interested in such matters as to endanger your life?" I could answer this man with a correct observation: "Do not speak well if you think that the penalty that can provide even a small utility must take into account the danger of living or dying instead of considering whether it performs just or unjust acts and actions proper to an honest man or an evil man". Or one could say in this opinion that those demigods who died under the walls of Troy, especially the son of Thetis, would be unjust. But in order to escape the danger of being judged a cowardly, he despised the risk to the point that he was furious to kill Hector, the mother who was goddess, said I think almost like this: "O Son, you will avenge the death of your comrade Patroclus and you will kill Hector, but you will have to die too" and then "since your fate is already decided", and explaining to him as it was not until he was. He was in the least concerned about dying, but rather living as a cowardly and not avenging his friends. "That I die at once having made the guilty one to pay a just punishment, that I should not remain here covered with shame with the curved ships, like a useless burden of the earth". Do you think he's worried about dying and danger?
In fact, things, Athenian citizens, are like this: in the place that one has chosen one thinking that he was the best or in the one in which he was decided by those who command, it is necessary in my opinion, that one must expose himself facing the danger, without fearing in the least for death or any other evil more than to run the risk of shame.
I would behave very badly, O Athenian citizens, if when the leaders decided by your authority assigned me a precise place to Potidea, to Amphipolis and Delius I remained there where they had established, as they did with all the others, and I risked dying, here instead, despite the command of the divinity to live by making philosophy and trying to know myself and others, I abandoned my place for fear of death or some other danger. It would really be a serious thing and really rightly in this case you could rightly cite here, in court, as a person who does not believe in the existence of the gods, because I would not obey the oracle, I would be afraid of death and I would think of being a wise man without being a wise man; in fact, or judges, he is sure that to be afraid of death is nothing else to seem wise without being so, because it means making believe that you do not know at all. No one knows death, and no one knows if perhaps it is not the greatest good for men; yet they fear it as it was the greatest evil. Is this not the true ignorance and the most shameful of all, being convinced that we know what is not known?
I, citizens, now perhaps in this and from this point of view I distinguish myself from the greater part of men, and if I said that I am wiser than someone in something would be for this, that I do not know anything of the Adams I also consider myself ignorant in matter; but as far as disobeying those who are better than we have no doubts, whether it is a god or a man, I know well how vile and a turmoil is. So I'll never be afraid and I'm not going back to things that I don't know if they can possibly be good compared to things that I can be bad for sure. So even if now you had to absolve me, not giving credence to the accusations of Anitus, who argued that I really should not have appeared in court, but in case you did, you should not have condemned me to death because, if I had fled to the sentence, your children would have risked being corrupted in every way by taking an interest in the teachings of Socrates; therefore if you said about it in this regard, "O Socrates, now we will not give credit to Anitus and we absolve you, but on the condition that you no longer deal with this type of research and you stop to philosophize, but if we discover you still have to do it you will have to die"; to conclude, even if you absolve me under these conditions, as I said I would say to you: "Athenian citizens, I have respect and affection for you, but I will obey God before before you" and until I have a breather and I will be able to do so I will never stop philosophizing, exhort and communicating to anyone who understands me for wisdom and power, do you not be ashamed to pity yourself to become as rich as possible and to give yourself a thought of reputation and your honor, without worrying about wisdom, intelligence and truth, in short, to the soul, to make it reach perfection as much as possible? If someone should contradict me by saying that he takes care of it, I will not let him go so easily and I will not leave, but I will continue to question him, I will examine him carefully by making objections, and if in the end it seems to me not to possess virtue, but only to support it, I will reproach him, because he takes into consideration things of great importance and in the utmost account those even negligible. I will do this with anyone who happens to meet me, whether he is younger or older than me, a foreigner or a fellow citizen, and to you fellow citizens the commitment will be even greater, since we share the same birthplace. The god commands him; for, know it well, then I think that in the city you have never had a greater good at his disposal than this service that the divinity has given me. I do nothing but go around trying to persuade the youngest as the oldest to not strive for the pleasures of the body and for the accumulation of wealth or anything else you must care before the soul, so as to make it better possible, saying: "Wealth is not born of virtue, but from virtue wealth and all other goods, this is true both for a citizen and for the whole community". If I were to corrupt the young, I would corrupt the young, these are my teachings that could be considered harmful; but if someone says that I say things different from these, he does not tell the truth. I would also like to declare, O Athenian citizens, as a result of this: "Whether you listen to Anitus or not and whether you absolve me or do not do it, know that I will never behave differently, even if I were to die many times".

Do not be noisy, O Athenian citizens, but keep that commitment that I have prayed to you when I asked you not to express disappointment in front of what I am saying, and to listen to me because, I believe, from this listening you will benefit. I am about to say several things that you are likely to hear from crying about but you see to stay in every way.
No please, don't talk to each other! You must therefore know well that if you kill me, at least for what I believe I am, you will not do more harm to me than you will suffer yourselves; then neither Meletus nor Anitus could do me harm, because they cannot do it: for I believe that it is not allowed to a man worse than to harm a better than himself. Surely Anitus could make me condemn to death, send into exile, deprive the rights of a citizen; condemnations that perhaps he and probably someone else could judge them great evils: I do not believe in the slightest, indeed I am convinced that it is a much greater evil to behave as he is now behaving, committing himself to have a man condemned to death unjustly.
Now, then, Athenian citizens, I am far from wanting to carry on the defense of myself, as some might think, but I do it rather for you, so that you do not commit a guilt condemning me keeping in mind the gift that the divinity has made you. Because if you condemn me to death you will not easily find another like me, who clearly, even if it seems unbelievable, the deity has put alongside the city like a large horse of race, but a little slow for its own grievance and need therefore to be stimulated with some kind of spur, a bit like a disturbing insect buzzing and prod. Here is the way in which it seems to me that the divinity wanted to accompany me to the city, spurring you without ever ceasing, approaching you everywhere and during the whole day, pressing you, making you reflect, and reproaching you one by one. It will not be easy for another like me to come to you, or citizens, but if you listen to me you will absolve me. But you may be annoyed you will condemn me, as people who sleep when they are awakened, giving reason to Anitus, and you will make me die without scruples, so that I can continue to sleep the rest of your life. Unless the divinity, taken by compassion for you, decided to send you another like me. I behave in this way because I have been assigned to the city by the divinity as a gift and you will also be able to recognize it from what I am about to say: it is not in fact normal for human customs the fact that I have completely neglected my personal interests and have accepted for many years now to let domestic ones go to ruin, having instead always take care of your interests, being close to one by one individually as a father or a older brother and trying to convince you to commit to become you. If I had earned something or had earned a compensation for the teachings I gave, I may have had a personal reason to do so, but you also see that even my accusers, while making a whole series of accusations so brazenly, failed to get to the shameful point of presenting a witness who can claim that I perceived or requested a reward in some circumstances. The proof that what I say is true and I can present, I doubt believe enough, is myself: it is my poverty.

Perhaps it might seem strange that while I do this task in private without ever stopping to engage by going around, instead I dare not give advice publicly to the whole city, going up to the stands to talk in front of all of you gathered in the assembly; but the reason for this is what you have already heard me say in many places, which means that that it happens to me a fact that has something of divine and supernatural, the one of which Meletus has also brought back in his own. In me since I was a kid there is a kind of voice that distracts me from actions that may be about to do, when it is made to be heard, but without pushing me to do something in particular. This is what prevented me from dealing with politics, and in my opinion it is a very opportune impediment; in fact, you know well Athenian citizens that if I a long time ago had begun to take an interest in public affairs I would have already died a long time ago and I could not have done any benefit either to you or myself. And do not blame me if I say the real truth, in the sense that no man can ever be saved by putting himself in direct conflict with you or with any governmental multitude, trying to prevent injustices and illegal events from being done in the state; therefore it is necessary that those who fight with commitment to justice, even if it is destined to survive for a short time, operate privately without holding public office.

Of the statements I have made I will give you as important evidence not words but facts, which will certainly be appreciated by you. Listen, then, to tell the story of what has happened to me, so that I for fear of death I am not willing to retreat before anyone as far as justice is concerned; for I am not willing to give in even if I should die. I will speak with simplicity of serious and unpleasant things for you, but which unfortunately are true. I, the Athenian citizens, have never had any public office, but I have been part of the members of the Senator Council of Boulé; when the Antiochid tribe, to which I belong, was drawn for the pritania was to have decided in a single judgment the fate of all the ten strategists together who had not collected the shipwrecked and deaths of the naval conflict, not examining the individual cases, going in this way against the law, as you had to admit. Then I was the only one among the prithans to oppose me, inviting you not to act against the law, and I voted against it, despite the fact that the kings were ready to denounce me and to be condemned among your cries of approval and incitement; I thought it necessary to take risks, imprisonment and death in order to respect legality and justice without fear, rather than to be on your side. These events happened when democracy was still in force; when they were then oligarchy and the Thirty, I was summoned together with four others to Tolo in the round palace of the government and we were ordered to take Leo of Salamis, where he had taken refuge in his hometown, where he had taken refuge, to be condemned to death. These actions they used to order them also to many others, wanting to drag as many citizens as possible into wicked actions, and I showed once again not in words but in deeds, which to me of death care little or nothing, even if this phrase might seem rather crude, while not committing injustices or impieties, to this is what I really care about; in fact, with violence those authorities did not intimidate me so much to make me an accomplice of an unjust fact, and when we came out of the government building, while the other four went in Salamis to pick up Leonte, but I left and went home. Perhaps this would have procured to me a death sentence if that government had not quickly fallen. Of the facts that I tell you will find many witnesses without difficulty.
Do you think that if I was interested in public matters I could have continued to live for so many years, acting honestly, committing myself by making choices according to justice as we must be done, bringing them before everything? Definitely not, Athenian citizens, and perhaps no other man would have succeeded. Throughout my life, both in public, if I have done something for public affairs, and in private, I have always behaved the same way and in no way and in the face of no one I have acted unjustly, without giving in to anyone, not even to those whom my accusers claim to have been my disciples. I have never been anyone's teacher, but I have never refused whether someone, younger or older than I wanted to listen to me and observe me while I absolved my mission. I do not speak to make a profit and I do not give up from doing so for money, but I am equally willing to be questioned by the rich and the poor and to dialogue with those who are willing to respond in turn. If then any of these become honest, or not, it would be unfair that the responsibility of choices about which I have never promised anything to anyone or I have never taught me. If someone still claims to have learned from me something in particular in private compared to what everyone has heard, know that he does not tell the truth.

So what is the reason why many enjoy spending a lot of time with me? You have already heard it, Athenian citizens; in fact, I told you the whole truth when I explained how the listeners have fun when they hear those who say they are wise, but they are not, because it is a very but unpleasant kind of experience. And to do this I was just ordered by the divinity, I repeat it, both through oracles and through dreams, in short, in every way in which even other times the will of the divinity was manifested to a human being to make him carry out some particular task. All this, Athenian citizens, is a truth rather easy to prove.
If it is true that I corrupt the young and others I have already corrupted in the past, one might think that some of these, with the passage of time, after realizing that I advised them bad things during their youth, would now present themselves in this court ready to accuse me of revenge, or if they did not want to do it in person there would be some of their family members and relatives who would not have forgotten easily and ready to make me pay a punishment for the evil done. Well I see that many of them are here, first of all Critones, my little age and the same demo, father of Critobulus; then Lisania of the demo of Sfetto, father of Eschines; and again Antiphon of the demo of Cephisia, father of Epigenes; then there are also others whose brothers have had relations with me like Neostratus, son of Teozotides, brother of Theodotus, of whom he was a brother, After all, Theodotus died, so at least he could not push him not to accuse me; and then Paralio, son of Demodocus, of whom he was brother Teages, was also Adeimantus, son of Aristones, brother of Plato; finally Eantodorus, brother of Apollodorus. I could also name many others, of which it was also necessary that Meletus presented someone as a witness who would confirm his indictment speech. However, if he has forgotten, then present him now and speak, I have no objections if he has something to say. But you citizens will find that things are exactly the opposite; in fact, all will be ready to come to the aid of a corrupter like me, who would have hurt them and their families, as Meletus and Anitus claim. What have been corrupted if they have not suffered the consequences perhaps could also be right to want to help me, I refer to the relatives of them, men now elderly; then what reason would they ever come to my aid, if not because it is correct and just and are aware of the fact that Meletus lies and that I say the truth?

So, citizens, these are more or less the arguments that I can quote to my excuse in addition to others of the same kind. Someone could perhaps misinterpret, if he had to undergo a less serious trial than this, he remembered that he had tried to move the judges as much as possible by wetting the pleas with many tears and bringing his children and many other relatives friends to really arouse compassion, while I do not do any of these things now even though it runs the risk, as it seems, that after the trial the maximum punishment is condemned. Someone is possible that, in view of my attitude, is less benevolent towards me and irritated to the point of voting in anger. So if someone is ill-disposed for this reason towards me, I do not believe, but if there were, it seems to me that I could compare myself to him with this type of speech: "Dear I too have family members; in fact, quoting Homer I was not begotten by an oak or a cliff, but by human beings, then I find myself having also children, citizens of Athenian, I do not have three, one already a young one". Why won't I do any of this? Not out of arrogance, Athenian citizens, because I despise you, whether or not I feel brave in the face of death this is another discourse, then what concerns my reputation does not seem correct to act like this, neither for me or for you, nor for the whole city, either because I am a certain age, or because despite having the name of wise, deserved or not, since it is generally believed that Socrates is generally distinguished from most of the people it would be shameful that those of you who seem to be superior to others in wisdom, courage or other particular virtue can behave in this way. I have seen several of these in various circumstances, which if I am on trial, even if they are people who seem of a certain value, They do incredible things, as if they thought they had to suffer something terrible should they die, as if they were destined to be immortal in case you did not condemn them to the death penalty. It seems to me that they may discredit the city, to the point that some strangers might think that those among the Athenians stand out for their merits and come from their fellow citizens judged better and worthy of high honors is not very different from young women. So, Athenian citizens, we who enjoy the reputation of being worth at least a minimum more than others should refrain from such behavior, then in the opposite case it is your duty to prevent it, showing even clearly that you will condemn with greater severity those who stage these dramas in court to arouse compassion by ridiculing the city, instead of behaving a dignifiedly.

But apart from the question of reputation, citizens, it does not seem appropriate to implore the judge by asking him to escape the sentence, and instead just to give correct testimonies convincing him of the truth; in fact, the judge sits in his place not to administer justice as if to do favors, but exercising his function, and he has sworn not to please those who like to please him, but to judge by applying the laws. It is necessary, therefore, that you do not take the vice of causing me to perjure, and that you also take it; for it would not be respectful of the holy things, neither for me nor for you. Do not think therefore for this, Athenian citizens, who in front of you behave in a way that I do not consider honorable, just and not even respectful of holy things, for Zeus, not only for a hundred other reasons, but above all because I am defending myself from the accusation of impiety that has been imputed to me by this Meletus; in fact, if I resorted to supplications persuaded and forced me to absolve me that you have not done an oath. But really this is not the case: I believe in the gods, Athenian citizens, like none of my accusers, then I submit to you and to the divinity so that you judge me in the best way both for me and for you.

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There are many reasons, or Athenian citizens, not to make me feel disturbed by what has happened, so because you have found me guilty, this did not surprise me and I am much more surprised at the number of the discards that came out of the ballots; in fact, I did not believe that there would be such a small difference, but on the contrary I expected it would be much greater. It seems that if only a handful of votes, had gone to the other side, I would have been acquitted; then I seem to have been right against Meletus, and it is clear to everyone that even if Anitus and Licone had not presented themselves later to accuse me, I would have been indebted to a thousand drachmas having not obtained the fifth part of the votes.

This person, however, considers that I deserve death; and it is, but what punishment will I require of you on my part, Athenian citizens? Isn't it clear that I will propose an adequate penalty? Which then? What physical pain or in money it is up to me, because I went around doing research without making a quiet life, neglecting the usual things such as wealth and the interests of the family, the military authority, the speeches to the people in order to aspire to the various offices in the political parties; not participating in the ward and riots of the square considering not being the kind of man who manages to save himself by meddle in these matters, I would not have undertaken any activity so I would have been of no use to myself or even to you, but with the purpose of doing the utmost possible good privately to every person I have dedicated myself, as I support, to convince one by one not to take care of personal interests before he has taken care of himself, to become the best, the wisest possible, nor those of the city before the city itself and in all by encouraging one to behave according to justice? What kind of condemnation is it for acting like this? A prize, Athenian citizens, if the penalty must be in accordance with merit, and this type of premium should be good for me. What is suitable for a poor man who has thought only of doing good to you, who needs a long time to instruct virtue? There is no better prize for such a man, Athenian citizens, than to keep him in the Pritaneo, and with more reason if he were a winner of a run horse race at the Olympics, with racing shows with the biga or the quadriga. He then makes you feel falsely happy while I commit myself so that you are really, but while he doesn't need maintenance, I need it. So if I have to propose a penalty suitable for merit, I will be confined to the Pritaneo for this maintenance.

Perhaps even in speaking in this tone will seem that I take the same proud attitude, as before about the supplications to arouse compassion. No is not so, Athenian citizens, but in this; in fact, I am convinced that I am not hurting any human being intentionally, but I cannot convince you. We have spoken too little time between us in reality, and I think that if the law had allowed you, as happens with other companies, to make a decision on the death penalty not in one but in several days, perhaps you would have been convinced. It is not easy to defend yourself in such a short time from slanders that they have become so serious.
I am really convinced that I am not harmed by anyone, I am at the same time very far from wanting to hurt myself and say myself things that can be used against me, with which I can be condemned to suffer some pain or that deserves other kind of punishment and requires them. And for fear of what regrettable fact should I? Perhaps not to suffer the pain that Meletus proposes for me and that I say I do not know if it can be good or bad? Instead of this I should propose alternative punishments, chosen among those that I know to be bad and also ask for it? Maybe choose for jail? Why should I live imprisoned as a servant by the magistrate on duty appointed every year by the college of the Eleven? Or should I propose a pecuniary penalty, and end up in prison until I have paid for it? For you it might also be the same, since I don't have the money to pay; or perhaps the right penalty for me in your opinion is exile? But should I love life so much, Athenian citizens, if I considered without thinking that while you who are my fellow citizens have not been able to endure my discussions and my speeches, become too boring and hateful enough that you try to get rid of them, should foreigners endure them easily? We are very far from a solution of Athenian citizens! How beautiful would my life be if I left at my age, passing one city after the other of exile in exile! Wherever I tried to go; in fact, I know well that the young would come to hear me as I speak, as here; and if I drove them away, they would convince the oldest ones to do the same thing to me, and if instead I allowed them to stay next to me, their fathers and family would make me hunt anyway.

Now someone might object to me: "O Socrates, but possible that you are not really capable of living silent and quietly going away from here?" This is precisely the most difficult thing among all to be understood to some of you; for if I say that this would mean diverging divinity and is why I could never be quiet, you would not believe me as if I were to do irony; and if instead I said that this is also the greatest good for man, make speeches every day about virtue and to the other topics on which you have heard me dialogue and question myself, and if I said that this is also the greatest good for man, to make speeches every day about virtue and to the other subjects that you have heard of me. I think you would believe me even less. Instead, things are just as I say, citizens, even if difficult to understand. But I do not believe in considering myself worthy of any evil, and if I had money I would have declared that I deserved a pecuniary penalty that I could pay, because I would not feel damaged; however, I have not really, unless you want to establish such a sum that I am able to pay. In this case I could perhaps pay you a silver mine, and that is why I would like to propose to you. But here is Plato, and Critobulus, and Apollodorus who advise me to offer you thirty mines giving them guarantee themselves, so therefore therefore I propose you to condemn me, and certainly will guarantee the payment.

--
Too short I think it was the time we had at our disposal, Athenian citizens, because of those who want to discredit the city over you will fall back the fame and the guilt of killing Socrates, a wise man; in fact, they will say that I am a wise man those who want to attack you, even if it is not true. If you had had the patience to wait a little, the story would have been resolved by itself, in a natural way given my age, now advanced in life expectancy and close to death. I say this not to all of you but only to those who voted for my condemnation, and then I say to them: "Do you think that he was condemned for lack of arguments with which I could convince you, believing that anything had to be done or said in order to avoid condemnation?" We're very far from this. Not for lack of arguments but rather for lack of a tough face and impudence, and because I did not want to tell you things that you would have listened to with great pleasure, then cry and complain, as well as doing and saying many other things I would say really unworthy of me, but certainly things that you are used to listening to from others. Before the sentence I thought that nothing unworthy should be done in the face of the danger of dying, nor now I regret having defended myself in this way and I prefer to die after such a defense than to live; in fact, it must not a person in a trial as in war, nor I nor any other, seek at any cost the way to avoid death. It is clear that even in battles it often happens that a man could escape death by throwing up his weapons and begging for the enemy who pursues him, and in other situations of danger there are other expedients to escape death, if one humbles himself to do or say anything. I think, citizens, that this is not the difficulty, to avoid death; but much more difficult is to escape from evil; in fact, it is faster. By now being old and therefore slow, I have been reached by the slowest one, while my accusers, who are full of vigor and therefore agile, have been joined by the fastest, therefore by wickedness. Now I am going to pay my debt, the death penalty to which you have condemned me, for those who have decided for this penalty instead remains to be paid a debt of iniquity and injustice, condemned for the work of the truth. We have to pay for these convictions, I resolute for mine, but you for yours too. Maybe it had to be like this and I think it could be right.

As for what will happen, I would like to make a prophecy to you who have condemned me to the death penalty; for I have come to the point where men usually make predictions, when life ends. I say, O citizens you are killing me, that immediately after my death will fall upon you, for Zeus, a punishment much more serious than you have inflicted on me; in fact, you have behaved so thinking of escaping the obligation to account for your life, but everything else will happen to you, I am convinced. The number of accusers will increase, which until now I could keep at bay without you realizing it; and these will be much more annoying as they will be young, and they will give you much more annoyance. If you kill people, you will be deceived that someone can give up reproaching you because you have a conduct of misbehavior, you are definitely wrong; thus getting rid of those who bother conscience is not really possible or even honest; the simplest and most elegant alternative is not to hurt others and strive to become as much as possible. I leave with this prediction, but intended only for those of you who have condemned me.

I would like to gladly dialogue with the story that happened here with those who acquitted me, since the eleven magistrates are doing something else and I still do not have to go to the place where death awaits me. So, citizens, stay with me for a while longer, nothing as long as it is allowed prevents us from speaking to each other. For you as to friendly people I want to reserve time to make you understand what has happened now to me; in fact, or judges, and calling you so I think of doing it correctly, something extraordinary has happened: that usual prophetic voice, that of divinity, that of divinity, which in all the previous time was made to be very frequently held back by acting on so many small occasions when I did not behave correctly; now instead I have happened what you yourself see and that someone can see. This morning when I left the house the opposition of the divinity did not manifest itself with any sign, nor while I went up here in court and not even during my defense when I was about to say something; and yet in other speeches I happened to be held also in the middle of the conversation; instead now during the whole process the voice has not given signs of opposition for any action I have done or word that I have said. And what do I have to assume that the cause is? I will tell you: how much it happened to me seems to have been probably a good thing; then we do not think correctly if we consider that dying is an evil. Of this I was given a great proof; in fact, it is not possible that the usual sign did not hold me back if I had not been on the verge of doing something good and it was not good.

But let us also consider from another perspective how there really is to be hoped that death is actually good. There are in fact two possibilities: either death coincides with nothingness and after one has died, no longer hears anything, or, according to what is said, consists of a kind of change and transmigration of the soul from here to another place. If, therefore, there is no feeling, but a kind of sleep, similar to that of those who sleep without having dreams, with death it would make a very great gain; in fact, if someone chose a night in which he had slept so well that he had not even dreamed of, and comparing that night the other nights and other days of his life, had to reflect and say how many other days and nights he had lived in his life in a better way and with more pleasure than that night, compared to all the others. So if this is death, I would undoubtedly call it a gain; in fact, all the time of life may seem to be no longer than a single night.
If, on the other hand, death is a kind of transmigration from this life to another place and it is true what is said, that all the dead gather in that place, what good could be greater than this judges lords? That if someone who came to Hades after being freed from them who claim to be judges found those who really are, of whom it is said that even there they exercise justice, and then Minos, Radamantus, Eacus, Trittolemus and many other demigods who were just in life, one could speak of a short journey? What sum would be willing to pay any of you, gentlemen judges, to be together with Orpheus, with Museum, with Hesiod or with Homer? I really would like to die several times, if all this is true, and for me that stay would be wonderful allowing me to meet with Palamedes, with Ajax Telamonius, and with any of the ancient heroes victims of unjust judgments; I also think that comparing mine with their misfortunes would be comforting me, and of considerable consolation it would be to spend time to dialogue with those who are there, as I did it. What sum then of you, gentlemen judges, would not be willing to pay in order to examine the one who led to Troy the famous great expedition, O Ulysses or Sisyphus, or the many men and women who could be mentioned? To dialogue in that place with them, to be together and question them would be the full of happiness. At least surely those who are in that world do not condemn anyone to death for their love of research: then, from every point of view in everything they are happier than those who live here and in time remain immortal, if it is true what is said.

But you judges also be in favor of hope in the face of death, and convince yourself that no evil can strike the just man either when he lives nor when he died, and that his actions do not go unnoticed by the gods, and even what happened to me was not by chance; then it is really clear to me that now die and free me from all the worries was the best thing for me. And for this reason the divinity has never held me with a sign, then I myself do not hold a very grudge against those who have condemned me nor against my accusers. But they condemned me and accused me with a different intention, believing that I was harmed; so it is right to reserve for them a good rebuke. Only this remains for me: citizens rebuke my children, when they are grown up, taking them back in the same way as I did with you, if it seems to you that they take care of riches or anything else before virtue, and if they believe they are of any value without being valuable for nothing, take them back as I reproached you with these kinds of attitudes, because they do not engage in things that are worth doing. If you do this I will have gotten good treatment from you, my children and me. But it's time to go, I'm going to die, you to live. Who then of us is directed towards the best choice to all is unknown, apart from the divinity.


[* This is not philosophy, the Philosophy it cannot be written - quotation from the Plato's letters; then it differs ^ from religion].