"Socrates," they will say to me, "was that our agreement, or was it not rather that thou shouldst submit to the judgments rendered by the republic?... What cause of complaint hast thou against us that thou shouldst try to destroy us? Dost thou not, in the first place, owe us thy life? Was it not under our auspices that thy father took to himself the companion that gave thee birth? If thou owest us thy birth and education, canst thou deny that thou art our child and servant? And if this be so, thinkest thou thy rights equal to ours; and that thou art permitted to make us suffer for what we make thee suffer? What! in the case of a father or a master, if thou hadst one, thou wouldst not have the right to do to him what he would do to thee; to speak to him insultingly if he insulted thee; to strike him, if he struck thee, nor anything like it; and thou shouldst hold such a right toward thy country! and if we had sentenced thee to death, thinking the sentence just, thou shouldst undertake to destroy us!... Does not thy wisdom teach thee that the country has a greater right to thy respect and homage, that it is more august and more wise before the gods and the sages, than father, mother, and all ancestors; that the country in its anger must be respected, that one must convince it of its error through persuasion, or obey its commands, suffer without murmuring whatever it orders to be suffered, even to be beaten and loaded with chains?... What else then dost thou do?" they would proceed to say, "than violate the treaty that binds thee to us, and trample under foot thy agreement?... In suffering thy sentence, thou diest an honorable victim of the iniquity, not of the laws, but of men; but if thou takest to flight, thou repellest unworthily injustice by injustice, evil by evil, and thou violatest the treaty whereby thou wert under obligation to us: thou imperilest those it was thy duty to protect, thou imperilest thyself, thy friends, thy country, and us. We shall be thy enemies all thy life; and when thou shalt descend to the dead, our sisters, the laws of Hades, knowing that thou hast tried thy best to destroy us here, will not receive thee very favorably."