Socrates' Moral Decision To Not Escape Was Socrates wise to stay in Athens to die? Examine firstly the context of the word wise , Socrates wasn't wise in the sense of preserving his own life as he stayed to die. He was encouraged and given the chance to escape by his friend Crito, but Socrates did not want to escape . Why? Socrates was a wise man. He believed in absolutes, and pursued the knowledge of man's source of goodness and virtue. He believed that the repayment of evil with evil was wrong. In short, Socrates was a very moral person. He stayed in Athens because he said that he had lived