hat my whole life has been spent holily and justly?
And indeed this verdict of self-approval I found re-echoed in the
opinion which my friends and intimates have formed concerning me. [11]
And now if my age is still to be prolonged, [12] I know that I cannot
escape paying [13] the penalty of old age, in increasing dimness of
sight and dulness of hearing. I shall find myself slower to learn new
lessons, and apter to forget the lessons I have learnt. And if to
these be added the consciousness of failing powers, the sting of
self-reproach, what prospect have I of any further joy in living? It
may be, you know," he added, "that God out of his great kindness is
intervening in my behalf [14] to suffer me to close my life in the
ripeness of age, and by the gentlest of deaths. For if at this time
sentence of death be passed upon me, it is plain I shall be allowed to
meet an end which, in the opinion of those who have studied the
matter, is not only the easiest in itself, but one which will cause
the least trouble to one's friends, [15] while engendering the deepest
longing for the departed. For of necessity he will only be thought of
with regret and longing who leaves nothing behind unseemly or
discomfortable to haunt the imagination of those beside him, but,
sound of body, and his soul still capable of friendly repose, fades
tranquilly away."

"No doubt," he added, "the gods were right in opposing me at that time
(touching the inquiry, what I was to say in my defence), [16] when you
all thought the great thing was to discover some means of
acquittal; [17] since, had I effected that, it is clear I should have
prepared for myself, not that surcease from life which is in store for
me anon, but to end my days wasted by disease, or by old age, on which
a confluent stream of evil things most alien to joyousness
converges." [18]

"No," he added, "God knows I shall display no ardent zeal to bring
that about. [19] On the contrary, if by proclaiming all the blessings
which I owe to god and men; if, by blazoning forth the opinion which I
entertain with regard to myself, I end by wearying the court, even so
will I choose death rather than supplicate in servile sort for leave
to live a little longer merely to gain a life impoverished in place of
death."

It was in this determination, Hermogenes states, that, when the
prosecution accused him of not recognising the gods recognised by the
state, but introducing novel divinities and corrup