ad Plat. "Apol." 18 B ap. L. Dind. ad loc.; cf. Diod. xiii. 64.

[56] Cf. Plat. "Apol." 23 E.

[57] e.g. Patroclus dying predicts the death of Hector who had slain
him, "Il." xvi. 851 foll.; and Hector that of Achilles, "Il."
xxii. 358 foll. Cf. Cic. "de Div." 1, 30. Plato, "Apol." 39 C,
making Socrates thus address his judges: {to de de meta touto
epithumo umin khresmodesai, o katapsephisamenoi mou' kai gar eimi
ede entautha, en o malist' anthropoi khresmodousin, otan mellosin
apothaneisthai}. "And now, O men who have condemned me, I would
fain prophesy to you, for I am about to die, and that is the hour
at which all men are gifted with prophetic power" (Jowett).

The prophecy proved true. The young man fell a victim to the pleasures
of wine; night and day he never ceased drinking, and at last became a
mere good-for-nothing, worthless alike to his city, his friends, and
himself. As to Anytus, even though the grave has closed upon him, his
evil reputation still survives him, due alike to his son's base
bringing-up and his own want of human feeling.

Socrates did, it is true, by his self-laudation draw down upon him the
jealousy of the court and caused his judges all the more to record
their votes against him. Yet even so I look upon the lot of destiny
which he obtained as providential,[58] chancing as he did upon the
easiest amidst the many shapes of death,[59] and escaping as he did
the one grievous portion of existence. And what a glorious chance,
moreover, he had to display the full strength of his soul, for when
once he had decided that death was better for him than life, just as
in the old days he had never harshly opposed himself to the good