In this dialogue Socrates is portrayed by Plato as the patient and virtuous citizen who is willing to give his life in obedience to the laws of the State. Crito, an old friend of Socrates, visits him with a plan to escape from the prison where he is awaiting the execution of his sentence. Socrates maintaining in death the principles he has held during his life, refuses to do the least evil in order to avoid the greatest.
This edition of The Apology is the translation into English from the original Greek by Professor Benjamin Jowett from the third edition of The Dialogues of Plato published in five volumes by Oxford University Press in 1892. Jowett's translation of Plato's dialogues have been a reference in English literature for many generations and an artistic achievement in it's own right, preserving in beautiful English prose the spirit and the direct, clear and elevated style of Plato's writing.
