While he was on trial, it is stated that Plato ascended the _bema_ and began, "Being the youngest, O men of Athens, of all who ever came upon the bema"--but at this point the judges cried out, "Come down! come down!" So he was convicted by two hundred and eighty-one votes more than were cast for his acquittal. And when the judges considered what penalty or fine he should receive, he said he would pay five-and-twenty drachmæ. Euboulides says he agreed to pay a hundred, but when the judges expressed their indignation aloud, he said, "For what I have done, I consider the proper return to be support at the public expense in the town hall." But they condemned him to death, the vote being larger than before by eighty. Not many days later he drank the hemlock in the prison, after uttering many noble words, recorded by Plato in the 'Phædo.' According to some, he wrote a poem beginning-- "Greeting, Apollo of Delos, and Artemis, youthful and famous." He also versified, not very successfully, a fable of Æsop's which began-- "Æsop once to the people who dwell in the city of Corinth Said, 'Let virtue be judged not by the popular voice.'" So he passed from among men; but straightway the Athenians repented of their action, so that they closed the gymnasia, and exiling the other accusers, put Meletus to death. Socrates they honored with a statue of bronze, the work of Lysippus, which was set up in the Pompeion. Anytus in exile, entering Heraclea, was warned out of town that very day. The Athenians have had the same experience not only in Socrates's case, but with many others. Indeed, it is stated that they fined Homer as a madman, and adjudged Tyrtæus to be crazy. Euripides reproves them in the 'Palamedes,' saying:-- "Ye have slain, ye have slain the all-wise, the harmless nightingale of the Muses." That is so. But Philochorus says Euripides died before Socrates. Socrates and Euripides were both disciples of Anaxagoras. It appears to me, too, that Socrates did talk on natural philosophy. In fact, Xenophon says so, though he states that Socrates held discourse only upon moral questions. Plato indeed, in the 'Apology,' mentioning Anaxagoras and other natural philosophers, himself says of them things whereof Socrates denies any knowledge; yet it is all ascribed to Socrates. Aristotle states that a certain mage from Syria came to Athens, and among other prophecies concerning Socrates foretold that his death would be a violent one. The following verses upon him are our own:-- Drink, in the palace of Zeus, O Socrates, seeing that truly Thou by a god wert called wise, who is wisdom itself. Foolish Athenians, who to thee offered the potion of hemlock, Through thy lips themselves draining the cup to the dregs! Translated for 'A Library of the World's Best Literature,' by William C. Lawton. EXAMPLES OF GREEK WIT AND WISDOM BIAS