In short, Socrates has rendered the city of Athens famous throughout the whole earth; and, as Lychas was said to be the honour of Sparta, because he treated, at his own expense, all the foreigners who came to the feasts of the Gymnopaedies, so it may, with much greater reason, be said of Socrates that he was the glory of Athens, he who all his life made a continual distribution of his goodness and virtues, and who, keeping open for all the world the treasures of an inestimable wealth, never sent any man out of his company but more virtuous, and more improved in the principles of honour, than formerly he was.

Therefore, in my opinion, if he had been treated according to his merit, they should have decreed him public honours rather than have condemned him to an infamous death.

For against whom have the laws ordained the punishment of death?
Is it not for thieves, for robbers, for men guilty of sacrilege, for those who sell persons that are free?
But where, in all the world, can we find a man more innocent of all those crimes than Socrates?
Can it be said of him that he ever held correspondence with the enemy, that he ever fomented any sedition, that he ever was the cause of a rebellion, or any other the like mischiefs?
Can any man lay to his charge that he ever detained his estate, or did him or it the least injury?
Was he ever so much as suspected of any of these things?
How then is it possible he should be guilty of the crimes of which he was accused; since, instead of not believing in the gods, as the accuser says, it is manifest he was a sincere adorer of them?
Instead of corrupting the youth, as he further alleges against him, he made it his chief care to deliver his friends from the power of every guilty passion, and to inspire them with an ardent love for virtue, the glory, the ornament, and felicity of families as well as of states?
And this being fact (and fact it is, for who can deny it ?), is it not certain that the Republic was extremely obliged to him, and that she ought to have paid him the highest honours?
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