Now Socrates has made his defense. At this point in the trial it is common for the defendant to parade his family and friends before the court so that they can weep and make an emotional appeal to the jury.[11] Socrates does acknowledge that he has a family including three sons, one of whom is an adolescent and two still young children. But he will not use them to sway the jurors. For “it doesn’t seem proper for me to do these things, being a man of my age and reputation—whether I have it truly or falsely—but it is thought that Socrates stands out from other men in some way.” Here we glimpse again a touch of vanity in the self-effacing philosopher. To turn the courtroom into a stage for melodrama, Socrates maintains, is a disgrace to the city. “But the city’s reputation aside, gentlemen, I just don’t think it is right for a defendant to beg the jury or to get off for doing so. Rather, he should instruct and persuade. For a jury is not seated to dispense justice as a gift, but to render judgment. Indeed, each of you has taken an oath not to play favorites on a whim, but to judge according to law.”[12] Rather than concede anything to the conventions of courtroom procedure, Socrates takes the whole legal system to task for allowing emotional appeals to interfere with what should be rational deliberations based on evidence and law. He stands on his own dignity and insists on the decorum of the court.
“Don’t expect me, men of Athens, to think I should behave towards you in a way I consider to be neither good nor right nor holy, especially since, by Zeus, I am accused of impiety by Meletus. If I should try to persuade you by begging and in the process pressure you to violate your oaths, I would be teaching you to disregard the existence of the gods and, in the very act of defending myself, convict myself of not believing in the gods. Yet I believe, as none of my accusers do, in the gods. And I entrust to you and to the god the responsibility of judging me in whatever way will be best for me and you.”[13]
In his carefully worded explanation, “I believe, as none of my accusers do, in the gods,” Socrates sums up his case. He believes in gods who are deeply and thoroughly moral. Hence he believes in gods who are not like those worshiped by his accusers—and most of his audience—gods that are petty, self-interested, and spiteful. His piety is deeply religious and reverent, yet his religion is not that of the Many. If he were to say more, he would only stir up the jurors’ ire.
The water-clock has run out; Socrates’ time is up. He sits down.
[11].Aristophanes Wasps 568-74; Lysias 20.34; Demosthenes 21.99; Hyperides Pro Euxenippo col. 49, lines 17-22; MacDowell 1978: 251.
[12].Plato Apology 34c-35c.
[13].Plato Apology 35c-d.