Crito

A short dialogue set in prison in the days before Socrates' execution. His old friend Crito arrives before dawn with news that the ship whose return will trigger the execution is about to arrive, and urges him to escape: the money is ready, and friends will be shamed if they seem to have let him die. Socrates replies that the opinion of the many does not matter, only that of the person who knows, and that one must never do wrong, not even in return for a wrong done. He then imagines the Laws of Athens speaking to him. They argue that escape would harm them, that the city has been like a parent and teacher to him, and that by staying in Athens all his life he agreed to abide by its verdicts. A citizen must either persuade the city or obey it. Crito has no answer, and Socrates stays.

It is one of the first arguments for political obligation and a starting point for debates about civil disobedience, consent to the state and whether unjust verdicts must be obeyed.