Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/504

 482 HISTOlCf OF GREECE. But by all these three categories, hardly excepting even hu admirers, the speech would be felt to carry one sting which ne^er misses its way to the angry feelings of the judicial bosom, whether the judges in session be one or a few or many, the sting of "affront to the court." The Athenian dikasts were always accustomed ta be addressed with deference, often with subservience : they now heard themselves lectured by a philosopher who stood before them like a fearless and invulnerable superior, beyond their power, though awaiting their verdict ; one who laid claim to a divine mission, which probably many of them believed to be an impos- ture, and who declared himself the inspired uprooter of " conceit of knowledge without the reality," which purpose many would not understand, and some would not like. To many, his demeanor would appear to betray an insolence not without analogy to Alki- biades or Kritias, with whom his accuser had compared him. I have already remarked, in reference to his trial, that, considering the number of personal enemies whom he made, the wonder is not that he was tried at all, but that he was not tried until so late in his life : I now remark in reference to the verdict, that, con- sidering his speech before the dikastery, we cannot be surprised that he was found guilty, but only that such verdict passed by so small a majority as five or six. That the condemnation of Sokrates was brought on distinctly by the tone and tenor of his defence, is the express testimony of Xenophon. " Other persons on trial (he says) defended them- selves in such manner as to conciliate the favor of the dikasts, or flatter, or entreat them, contrary to the laws, and thus obtained acquittal. But Sokrates would resort to nothing of this customary practice of the dikastery contrary to the laws. Though he might easily have been let off" by the dikasts, if he would have done any- thing of the kind even moderately, he preferred rather to adhere to the laws and die, than to save his Hfe by violating them." l Now no one in Athens except Sokrates, probably, would have construed the laws as requiring the tone of oration which he adopted ; nor would he himself have so construed them, if he had been twenty 1 Xenoph. Mem. iv, 4, 4. 'E/cctvof ovdev fi-deXTjae TUV eiudonw iv TU Trapu rove vofiovf Koifjaai el/l/.d padiu; av d^ei?if vird TUV el K.a.1 fierpiuf n TOVTUV faoiijaE, Trpoeifaro puMov rote i'6/iotf vuv uirodavelv, fj napavofiuv cv.