Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/507

 SPEECH AFTER TlfE SENTENCE. 4J Subsistence in the prytaneum at the public expense, was one f the greatest honorary distinctions which the citizens of Athena ever conferred ; an emphatic token of public gratitude. That Sokrates, therefore, should proclaim himself worthy of such an honor, and talk of ns.-cssirg it upon himself in lieu of a pun- ishment, before the very dikasts who had just passed against him a verdict of guilty, would be received by them as nothing less than a deliberate insult ; a defiance of judicial authority, which it was their duty to prove, to an opinionated and haughty citizen, that he could not commit with impunity. The persons who heard his language with the greatest distress, were doubtless Plato, Krito, and his other friends around him ; who, though sympathizing with him fully, knew well that he was assuring the success of the proposition of Meletus,! and would regret that he should thus throw away his life by what they would think an ill- placed and unnecessary self-exaltation. Had he proposed, with little or no preface, the substitute-fine of thirty minse with which this part of his speech concluded, there is every reason for believing that the majority of dikasts would have voted for it. The sentence of death passed against him, by what majoril; we do not know. But Sokrates neither altered his tone, no manifested any regret for the language by which he had himsel' seconded the purpose of his accusers. On the contrary, he toK the dikasts, in a short address prior to his departure for the prison, that he was satisfied both with his own conduct and with the result. The divine sign, he said, which was wont to restrain him, often on very small occasions, both in deeds and in words, had never manifested itself once to him throughout the whole day, neither when he came thilbor at first, nor at any one point throughout his whole discourse. The tacit acquiescence of this infallible monitor satisfied him not only that he had spoken rightly, but that the sentence passed was in reality no evil to him ; that to die new was the best thing which could befall him.- Either death waa (ar.cunount to a sound, perpetual, and dream- less sleep, which in his judgment would be no loss, but rather a gain, compared with the present life ; or else, if the common 1 Sec I'luto, Krito, c. 5, p. 45, B.
 * Plato, Apol. Sok. c. 31, p. 40, B ; c 33, p. 4 1, D