who led that mighty army against Troy, or Ulysses, or Sisyphus, or ten
thousand others whom one might mention both men and women--with whom to
converse and associate, and to question them, would be an inconceivable
happiness? Surely for that the judges there do not condemn to death; for
in other respects those who live there are more happy than those who are
here, and are henceforth immortal, if, at least, what is said be true.

33. You, therefore, O my judges! ought to entertain good hopes with
respect to death, and to meditate on this one truth, that to a good man
nothing is evil, neither while living nor when dead, nor are his
concerns neglected by the gods. And what has befallen me is not the
effect of chance; but this is clear to me, that now to die, and be freed
from my cares is better for me On this account the warning in no way
turned me aside; and I bear no resentment toward those who condemned me,
or against my accusers, although they did not condemn and accuse me with
this intention, but thinking to injure me: in this they deserve to be
blamed.

Thus much, however, I beg of them. Punish my sons when they grow up, O
judges! paining them as I have pained you, if they appear to you to care
for riches or anything else before virtue; and if they think themselves
to be something when they are nothing, reproach them as I have done you,
for not attending to what they ought, and for conceiving themselves to
be something when they are worth nothing. If ye do this, both I and my
sons shall have met with just treatment at your hands.

But it is now time to depart--for me to die, for you to live. But which
of us is going to a better state is unknown to every one but God.