APOLOGY 35
bcdeaccustomed to think that I deserve anything evil. If I had been rich, I would have pro-
posed as large a fine as I could pay: that would have done me no harm. But I am not rich
enough to pay a fine unless you are willing to fix it at a sum within my means. Perhaps I
could pay you a mina, so I propose that. Plato here, Athenians, and Crito, and Critobulus,
and Apollodorus bid me propose thirty minae, and they guarantee its payment. So I pro-
pose thirty minae. Their security will be sufficient to you for the money.
(He is condemned to death.)You have not gained very much time, Athenians, and at the price of the slurs of
those who wish to revile the state. And they will say that you put Socrates, a wise man,
to death. For they will certainly call me wise, whether I am wise or not, when they want
to reproach you. If you had waited for a little while, your wishes would have been ful-
filled in the course of nature; for you see that I am an old man, far advanced in years,
and near to death. I am saying this not to all of you, only to those who have voted for my
death. And to them I have something else to say. Perhaps, my friends, you think that I
have been convicted because I was wanting in the arguments by which I could have per-
suaded you to acquit me, if I had thought it right to do or to say anything to escape pun-
ishment. It is not so. I have been convicted because I was wanting, not in arguments, but
in impudence and shamelessness—because I would not plead before you as you would
have liked to hear me plead, or appeal to you with weeping and wailing, or say and do
Despite refuting his accusers (as recorded in the Apology), Socrates was found guilty of impiety toward the gods
and of corrupting the youth. He was sentenced to die by drinking the poison hemlock. (© PHAS/Getty)