392 PLATO
had seventy years to think of them, during which time you were at liberty to leave the city, if we were not to your mind, or if our covenants appeared to you to be unfair. You had your choice, and might have gone either to Lacedaemon or Crete, both which States are often praised by you for their good government, or to some other Hellenic or foreign State. Whereas you, above all other Athenians, seemed to be so fond of the state, or, in other words, of us her laws (and who would care about a State which has no laws ?) that you never stirred out of her ; the halt, the blind, the maimed were not more stationary in her than you were. And now you run away and forsake your agreements. Not so, Socrates, if you will take our advice ; do not make yourself ridiculous by escaping out of the city.
" For just consider, if you transgress and err in this sort of way, what good will you do either to yourself or to your friends ? That your friends will be driven into exile and deprived of citizenship, or will lose their property, is tolerably certain ; and you yourself, if you fly to one of the neighboring cities, as, for ex- ample, Thebes or Megara, both of which are well gov- erned, will come to them as an enemy, Socrates, and their government will be against you, and all patriotic citizens will cast an evil eye upon you as a subverter of the laws, and you will confirm in the minds of the judges the justice of their own condemnation of you. For he who is a corrupter of the laws is more than likely to be a corrupter of the young and foolish por- tion of mankind. AYill you then flee from well-or- dered cities and virtuous men ? And is existence worth having on these terms? Or will you go to them without shame, and talk to them, Socrates?
