“Consider now, Socrates,” the Laws continue, “that if what we say is true, you are not undertaking a just action in what you are planning. Having begotten you, nourished you, and educated you, shared all our goods with you and with your fellow citizens, we proclaim to any Athenian who wishes, that he has the privilege, when he has examined and tried out the government of the city and us the laws and found that we do not please him, to take his property and go wherever he likes. …
“But anyone who remains, seeing how we make legal judgments and manage the other affairs of the city, we maintain has de facto consented to our government and to our commands. And we claim that he who disobeys us wrongs us in three ways: first, because he doesn’t obey us, his parents; second, because he doesn’t obey us who raised him; finally, because having consented to obey us, he neither obeys nor tries to persuade us if we’ve done anything wrong. For we provide a way out and don’t peremptorily demand compliance with our orders, but we allow for two alternatives: either comply or persuade us otherwise;[24] yet the transgressor does neither. And we say that you, Socrates, will be guilty of these charges, if you do what you have in mind, and you’ll be not the least but one of the most guilty.”[25]
So Socrates had the opportunity, along with his fellow citizens, to “vote with his feet” if he did not like the government of Athens. He could pack up and head to some state he regarded as more orderly and well-governed, such as Sparta or Crete, Thebes or Megara.[26] These states do not have the radical democracies Athens has, and seem to conform better to Socrates’ notion of states governed by the rule by law. But even if Socrates admired other governments, he never left his native country to enjoy some other state. By staying, he has tacitly accepted the authority of his own government. The Laws go on to point out to Socrates that “you would not have remained in Athens unlike all the other Athenians unless you especially loved the city, and never left the city for a festival (except once to the Isthmus and nowhere else), unless you were sent on campaign.”[27] This review of Socrates’ travels omits one trip to Samos (see ch. 4.8, 4.9*), but it points out his constant presence in his city.
Of course Socrates’ residence in Athens can be explained by motives other than acceptance of the city’s laws. Notably, his religious mission, as he stressed in his trial, he sees as obliging him to converse with the citizens of Athens. His service to the god, then, is perhaps his strongest motive for staying put. Indeed, he stayed in Athens even during the time of the Thirty, when he probably did not approve at all of the government (see ch. 21*). But perhaps in his mind he was subject to the laws of Athens even then—not the arbitrary decrees of the oligarchs, such as the arrest of Leon of Salamis—but to the good laws that remained in force.
[24].For a good discussion of this point, see Kraut 1984: 54-90.
[25].Plato Crito 51c-52a.
[26].Plato Crito 53a, b.
[27].Plato Crito 52b.