The Apology of Socrates

Translation by H. G. Dakyns

       Xenophon the Athenian was born 431 B.C. He was a
pupil of Socrates. He marched with the Spartans,
and was exiled from Athens. Sparta gave him land
and property in Scillus, where he lived for many
years before having to move once more, to settle
in Corinth. He died in 354 B.C.

       The Apology describes Socrates’ state of mind at
his trial and execution, and especially his view
that it was better to die before senility set in
than to escape execution by humbling himself be-
fore an unjust persecution. Xenophon was away at
the time, involved in the events of the march of
the ten thousand.

Preparer’s Note

This was typed from Dakyns’ series, “The Works of Xenophon,” a four-volume set. The complete list of Xenophon’s works (though there is doubt about some of these) is:

Work	Number of books
The Anabasis	7
The Hellenica	7
The Cyropaedia	8
The Memorabilia	4
The Symposium	1
The Economist	1
On Horsemanship	1
The Sportsman	1
The Cavalry General	1
The Apology	1
On Revenues	1
The Hiero	1
The Agesilaus	1
The Polity of the Athenians and the Lacedaemonians	2

Text in brackets “{}” is my transliteration of Greek text into English using an Oxford English Dictionary alphabet table. The diacritical marks have been lost.