Plato has Socrates talk to the jurors briefly as the court is concluding its business. This part of the speech, which falls outside forensic practice, is most likely a fabrication of Plato to allow some reflection and editorializing.[25] Here Socrates says that he was condemned because he refused to play the games expected of defendants. It is easier to escape death than to escape wickedness, which runs faster than death. Socrates has fallen victim to death, but his accusers to wickedness.[26] He prophesies that others will hold them accountable for what they have done to himself, referring to his followers who continued the Socratic program after his death and were active while Plato was writing. Socrates’ divine sign has not opposed him throughout the trial, so he feels justified in his defense.
Socrates goes on to speculate about death. Socrates’ experience provides hope that death is not a bad thing. It is either the end of all consciousness or a departure to another place. In the first case it is like a dreamless sleep. In the second, it is a move to a place with perfect justice, unlike mortal life. Indeed, Socrates playfully suggests, the next life would provide him with an opportunity to examine famous individuals from history and mythology to see what wisdom they possess. He repeats the assertion he has made several times already, that “no evil can befall a good man, either living or dead, nor do the gods neglect his affairs.”[27] He bears no ill will to his accusers, but he recognizes that they intended to harm him, though they could not. Finally, Socrates urges his friends to look after his sons, and correct them if they pursue other goods in preference to virtue and goodness, as Socrates has corrected his fellow citizens.
“But now it is time to depart, I to die and you to live. But which of us goes to a better fate is unclear to anyone but the god.”[28]
After the trial, the jurors carried their tickets to the magistrates to receive their pay of three obols (half a drachma, a kind of minimum wage) for their day’s service. Socrates was escorted to the state prison near the marketplace.
[25].Xenophon Apology 24-26 also has Socrates make a final address to the jury. Contrary to most scholars,Burnet 1924: 161-162 finds the speech plausible.
[26].Plato Apology 39a-b.
[27].Plato Apology 41d.
[28].Plato Apology 42a.