paying a proposed fine at Socrates' sentencing, Crito swore before Socrates' judges that the philosopher would remain in prison until the execution rather than attempt to flee Athens; he is nonetheless portrayed in his eponymous dialogue as urging Socrates to allow him and the Thebans Simmias and Cebes to bribe the prison guards so that Socrates might flee to Thessaly to seek asylum with his friends. During Socrates' final hours, Crito serves as a valet to his final needs and is the last individual to whom he speaks: Socrates asks him to offer a sacrifice to the Greek god Asclepius. Though Xenophon counts Crito in the small circle of genuine associates of Socrates, neither Xenophon nor Plato portrays Crito as very philosophically inclined. Plato's Crito makes clear that he had participated in more than one philosophical conversation with Socrates; he is however depicted there and in the Phaedo as forgetful and inattentive to fundamental Socratic tenets. His concerns in the latter are entirely practical, in contrast to those of Socrates' other friends who are eager to share the philosopher's last hours in deep philosophical debate. In the Euthydemus, Crito frequently expresses disinterest in the work of philosophers, although Xenophon depicts Crito as urging his sons to follow Socrates. Diogenes Laërtius also preserves a traditional story that Crito had released Phaedo of Elis, later a Platonic philosopher, from slavery. Critobulus in literature Critobulus also became a recurrent character within Socratic literature: according to the Apology and Phaedo, Critobulus offered to help Socrates pay his potential fine, and was present at the latter's execution. Xenophon depicts Socrates as chastising the supposedly otherwise moderate Critobulus for kissing "the beautiful son of Alcibiades" in a conversation in his Memorabilia. In the Telauges of Aeschines Socraticus, Socrates appears to have criticized Critobulus for his ignorance and ostentation, though only fragments of the dialogue survive. List of works Diogenes Laërtius tells that Crito wrote 17 dialogues, although modern scholars assume that these are apocryphal and that Crito in fact did not write. That men are not made good by instruction Concerning superfluity What is expedient, or The Statesman Of Beauty On Doing Ill On Tidiness On Law Of that which is Divine On Arts Of Society Of Wisdom Protagoras, or The Statesman On Letters Of Poetry Of Learning On Knowing, or On Science What is Knowledge See also List of speakers in Plato's dialogues References Bibliography