The Crito: Should Socrates Escape?

Socrates' execution was delayed for about a month because no executions could take place while a sacred ship was away on its annual voyage to Delos. In Plato's Crito, his wealthy friend Crito visits the prison with a plan: guards can be bribed, and Socrates can flee into exile. Socrates refuses. He argues that one should never do wrong, even in return for wrong, and that escaping would harm the city.

He imagines the Laws of Athens speaking to him: they nurtured and educated him, and by living in Athens for 70 years when he could have left, he implicitly agreed to obey them. Breaking that agreement would be unjust. Scholars debate how this fits with the Apology, where he says he would disobey an order to stop philosophizing. One answer is that Socrates would refuse to commit injustice, but would accept the penalty for doing so.