happened to know of some place outside Attica where death was
forbidden to set foot?"

When the trial drew to an end, we are told, the master said: [44]
"Sirs, those who instructed the witnesses that they ought to perjure
themselves and bear false witness against me, alike with those who
listened to their instruction, must be conscious to themselves of a
deep impiety and injustice. [45] But for myself, what reason have I at
the present time to hold my head less high than I did before sentence
was passed against me, if I have not been convicted of having done any
of those things whereof my accusers accused me? It has not been proved
against me that I have sacrificed to novel divinities in place of Zeus
and Hera and the gods who form their company. I have not taken oath by
any other gods, nor named their name.

"And then the young--how could I corrupt them by habituating them to
manliness and frugality? since not even my accusers themselves allege
against me that I have committed any of those deeds [46] of which death
is the penalty, such as robbery of temples, [47] breaking into houses,
selling freemen into slavery, or betrayal of the state; so that I must
still ask myself in wonderment how it has been proved to you that I
have done a deed worthy of death. Nor yet again because I die
innocently is that a reason why I should lower my crest, for that is a
blot not upon me but upon those who condemned me.

"For me, I find a certain consolation in the case of Palamedes, [48]
whose end was not unlike my own; who still even to-day furnishes a far
nobler theme of song than Odysseus who unjustly slew him; and I know
that testimony will be borne to me also by time future and time past
that I never wronged another at any time or ever made a worse man of
him, [49] but ever tried to benefit those who practised discussion with
me, teaching them gratuitously every good thing in my power."

Having so said he turned and went in a manner quite in conformity [50]
with the words which he had spoken--so bright an air was discernible
alike in the glance of his eye, his gesture, and his step.

And when he perceived those who followed by his side in tears, "What
is this?" he asked. "Why do you weep now? [51] Do you not know that for
many a long day, ever since I was born, sentence of death was passed
upon me by nature? If so be I perish prematurely while the tide of
life's blessings flows free and fast, certainly I and my well-wishers
s