Antidosis
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Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
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If the discourse which is now about to be read
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had been like the speeches which are produced either for the law-courts
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or for oratorical display,
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I should not, I suppose, have prefaced it by any explanation. Since, however, it is novel and different in character, it is necessary to begin by setting forth the reasons why I chose to write a discourse so unlike any other; for if I neglected to make this clear, my speech would, no doubt, impress many as curious and strange.
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The fact is that, although I have known that some of the sophists
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traduce my occupation, saying that it has to do with writing speeches for the courts,
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very much as one might have the effrontery to call Pheidias, who wrought our statue of Athena,
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a doll-maker, or say that Zeuxis and Parrhasius
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practiced the same art as the sign-painters,
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nevertheless I have never deigned to defend myself against their attempts to belittle me,
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because I considered that their foolish babble had no influence whatever and that I had, myself, made it manifest to all that I had elected to speak and write, not on petty disputes, but on subjects so important and so elevated
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that no one would attempt them except those who had studied with me, and their would-be imitators.
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Indeed, I had always thought, until well on in years, that, owing to this choice and to my retired life in general,
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I stood fairly well in the opinion of all the lay public. Then when my career was near its close, having been challenged to an exchange of property on the question of a trierarchy, and subjected to a trial on that issue, I came to realize that even outside of my profession there were those who were not disposed towards me as I had thought; nay, that some had been absolutely misled as to my pursuits and were inclined to listen to my detractors, while others, who were well aware of the nature of my work, were envious, feeling the same towards me as do the sophists, and rejoiced to see people hold false opinions of my character.
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They betrayed their sentiments at the trial; for, although my opponent made no argument whatever on the merits of the case, and did nothing but decry my “cleverness” of speech
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and indulge in extravagant nonsense about my wealth and the number of my pupils, they imposed the trierarchy upon me. Now, I bore that expense in such a manner as is becoming to those who are neither too much upset by such things nor altogether reckless or even careless about money.
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But when my eyes were opened, as I have said, to the fact that a greater number than I supposed had mistaken ideas about me, I began to ponder how I could show to them and to posterity the truth about my character, my life, and the education to which I am devoted, and not suffer myself to be condemned on these issues without a trial nor to remain, as I had just been, at the mercy of my habitual calumniators.
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And as I kept thinking upon it, I came ever to the same conclusion, namely, that the only way in which I could accomplish this was to compose a discourse which would be, as it were, a true image of my thought and of my whole life; for I hoped that this would serve both as the best means of making known the truth about me and, at the same time, as a monument, after my death, more noble than statues of bronze.
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I saw, however, that if I were to attempt a eulogy of myself, I should not be able to cover all the points which I proposed to discuss, nor should I succeed in treating them without arousing the displeasure or even the envy of my hearers. But it occurred to me that if I were to adopt the fiction of a trial and of a suit brought against me—if I were to suppose that a sycophant
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had brought an indictment and was threatening me with trouble
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and that he was using the calumnies which had been urged against me in the suit about the exchange of property, while I, for my part, cast my speech in the form of a defense in court—in this way it would be possible to discuss to the best advantage all the points which I wanted to make.
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With these thoughts in mind I set myself to write this discourse—I who am no longer in the prime of youth but in my eighty-second year. Wherefore, you may well forgive me if my speech appears to be less vigorous
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than those which I have published in the past.
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For, I assure you, it has not been an easy nor a simple task, but one of great difficulty; for while some things in my discourse are appropriate to be spoken in a court-room, others are out of place amid such controversies, being frank discussions about philosophy and expositions of its power. There is in it, also, matter which it would be well for young men to hear before they set out to gain knowledge and an education; and there is much, besides, of what I have written in the past, inserted in the present discussion, not without reason nor without fitness, but with due appropriateness to the subject in hand.
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Now to view as a whole so great an extent of subject matter, to harmonize and bring together so many diverse varieties of discourse, to connect smoothly what follows with what goes before, and to make all parts consonant one with another, was by no means an easy undertaking. Yet I did not desist, in spite of my age, until I had accomplished it, such as it is. It is, at any rate, written with devotion to the truth; its other qualities I leave to the judgement of my hearers.
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But I urge all who intend to acquaint themselves with my speech, first, to make allowance, as they listen to it, for the fact that it is a mixed discourse, composed with an eye to all these subjects; next, to fix their attention even more on what is about to be said than on what has been said before; and, lastly, not to seek to run through the whole of it at the first sitting, but only so much of it as will not fatigue the audience.
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For if you comply with this advice, you will be better able to determine whether I speak in a manner worthy of my reputation.
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These, then, are the things which it was necessary for me to say by way of introduction. I beg you now to listen to my defense, which purports to have been written for a trial, but whose real purpose is to show the truth about myself, to make those who are ignorant about me know the sort of man I am and those who are afflicted with envy suffer a still more painful attack of this malady; for a greater revenge upon them than this I could not hope to obtain.
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I consider that in all the world there are none so depraved and so deserving of the severest punishment as those who have the audacity to charge others with the offenses of which they themselves are guilty. And this is the very thing that Lysimachus has done. For this informer, himself delivering a composed speech, has said more in complaint of my compositions than upon all other points; it is as if one were to charge another with breaking into a temple, while showing in his own hands plunder stolen from the gods.
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I would give much if he really thought that I am as “clever” as he has made me out to be to you, for then he would never have tried to trouble me. But now, although he alleges that I am able to make the weaker cause appear the stronger,
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he has, in fact, so low an opinion of my powers that he is confident that he with his lies will win against me and the truth.
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And so maliciously has everything conspired against me, that while others may depend on their power of speech to make an end of calumnies, it is, in my case, just this power of speech which Lysimachus has most calumniated, in order that if I shall appear to speak well, I may show that I am subject to the charges which he has made about my cleverness; while if it turns out that I speak less ably than he has led you to expect, you may think that mine is the weaker cause.
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I beg you, then, neither to credit nor to discredit what has been said to you until you have heard to the end what I also have to say, bearing it in mind that there would have been no need of granting to the accused the right of making a defense, had it been possible to reach a just verdict from the arguments of the accuser. At this stage of the case no one here present is in any doubt whether the accuser has spoken well or badly, but it is not yet easy for the jury to decide from what the first speaker has said whether he has based his arguments on the truth; nay, they will be fortunate if they are able to draw a just conclusion from the arguments of both sides.
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I do not wonder that men spend more time in denouncing those who attempt to deceive the jury than upon their own defense, nor that they complain that calumny is our greatest bane. What, indeed, could work greater mischief? It causes liars to be looked on with respect, innocent men to be regarded as criminals, and judges to violate their oaths; in a word, it smothers truth, and pouring false ideas into our ears, it leaves no man among our citizens secure from an unjust death.
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You must be on your guard against this and take care that nothing of the sort happens in this case and that you are not yourselves seen to fall into the very faults which you find reprehensible in others. I think you know well enough that time and again in the past
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has so deeply repented
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the judgements which have been pronounced in passion and without proof that not long after the events she has become eager to punish her deceivers, and would gladly have seen the victims of calumny in happier circumstances than before.
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You should remember this and not trust too hastily the assertions of the accuser nor hear the defendant in uproar and anger.
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Ours is a shameful state of inconsistency; for while it is acknowledged that in our life in general we are the most merciful
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and gentle of all the Hellenes, yet in the conduct of our trials here we manifestly give the lie to this reputation.
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In other states, when they try a man for his life, they cast a portion of the votes for the defendant,
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but with us the accused has not even an equal chance with the sycophants;
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nay, while we take our solemn oath at the beginning of each year that we will hear impartially both accusers and accused,
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we depart so far from this in practice, that when the accuser makes his charges we give ear to whatever he may say; but when the accused endeavors to refute them, we sometimes do not endure even to hear his voice.
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Those states in which an occasional citizen is put to death without a trial we condemn as unfit to live in, yet are blind to the fact that we are in the same case when we do not hear with equal good will both sides of the contest.
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But what is most absurd of all is the fact that when one of us is on trial, he denounces the calumniators, but when he sits in judgement upon another, he is no longer of the same mind regarding them. Yet, surely, intelligent men ought to be such when they are judges of others, as they would expect others to be to them in like case, bearing in mind the fact that because of the audacity of the sycophants it is impossible to foresee what man may be placed in peril and be compelled to plead, even as I am now doing, before men who are to decide his fate by their votes.
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Indeed no one may rely on the honesty of his life as a guarantee that he will be able to live securely in Athens; for the men who have chosen to neglect what is their own and to plot against what belongs to others do not keep their hands off citizens who live soberly and bring before you only those who do evil; on the contrary, they advertise their powers in their attacks upon men who are entirely innocent, and so get more money from those who are clearly guilty.
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This is exactly what Lysimachus had in mind when he subjected me to this trial; for he thought that this suit against me would bring him profit from other sources, and he expected that if he won in the debate with me, whom he calls the teacher of other men, everyone would regard his power as irresistible.
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He is confident that he will win easily; for he sees that you are over-ready to accept slanders and calumnies, while I, because of my age and my lack of experience in contests of this kind,
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shall not be able to reply to them in a manner worthy of my reputation;
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for I have so lived all my life till now that no man either under the oligarchy or under the democracy has ever charged me with any offense, whether of violence or injury,
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nor will any man be found to have sat either as arbitrator
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or as judge upon my actions. For I have schooled myself to avoid giving any offense to others, and, when I have been wronged by others, not to seek revenge in court but to adjust the matter in dispute by conferring with their friends.
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All this has availed me nothing; on the contrary, I who have lived to this advanced age without complaint from anyone could not be in greater jeopardy if I had wronged all the world. Yet I am not utterly discouraged because I face so great a penalty;
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no, if you will only hear me with good will, I am very confident that those who have been misled as to my pursuits and have been won over by my would-be slanderers will promptly change their views, while those who think of me as I really am will be still more confirmed in their opinion.
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But in order that I may not overtax your patience by speaking at undue length before coming to the subject, I shall leave off this discussion and attempt forthwith to inform you on the question which you are to vote upon. Please read the indictment.Here, as elsewhere, Isocrates preserves the fiction of a court scene by calling upon the clerk to read the formal charge. Indictment
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Here in the indictment my accuser endeavors to vilify me, charging that I corrupt young men
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by teaching them to speak and gain their own advantage in the courts contrary to justice, while in his speech he makes me out to be a man whose equal has never been known either among those who hang about the law-courts or among the devotees of philosophy; for he declares that I have had as my pupils not only private persons but orators, generals, kings, and despots;
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and that I have received from them and am now receiving enormous sums of money.
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He has made his accusation in this manner, thinking that his extravagant assertions about me and my wealth and the great number of my pupils would arouse the envy of all his hearers, while my alleged activities in the law-courts would stir up your anger and hate; and when judges are affected by these very passions, they are most severe upon those who are on trial. However, in the one charge he has grossly exaggerated the facts and in the other he lies outright, as I think I can easily show.
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Let me ask you, however, not to pay any attention to what you have heard about me in the past from my would-be slanderers and calumniators, not to credit charges which have been made without proof or trial, and not to be influenced by the suspicions which have been maliciously implanted in you by my enemies, but to judge me to be the kind of man which the accusation and the defense in this trial will show me to be; for if you decide the case on this basis, you will have the credit of judging honorably and in accordance with the law, while I, for my part, shall obtain my complete deserts.
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Now, in fact, no citizen has ever been harmed either by my “cleverness” or by my writings, and I think the most convincing proof of this is furnished by this trial; for if any man had been wronged by me, even though he might have held his tongue up till now, he would not have neglected the present opportunity, but would have come forward to denounce me or bear witness against me. For when one who has never in his life heard a single disparaging word from me has put me in so great peril, depend upon it, had any suffered injury at my hands, they would now attempt to have their revenge.
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For surely it is neither probable nor possible both that I, on the one hand, have wronged many people and that those, on the other hand, who have been visited with misfortune through me are silent and refrain from accusing me; nay, are kinder to me when my life is in peril than those who have suffered no injury, especially since all they have to do is to testify to the wrongs I have done them in order to obtain the fullest reparation.
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But neither in the past nor now will anyone be found to have made any such complaint. If, therefore, I were to agree with my accuser and concede his claim that I am the “cleverest” of men and that I have never had an equal as a writer of the kind of speeches which are offensive to you, it would be much more just to give me credit for being an honest man than to punish me;
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for when a man has superior talents whether for speech or for action, one cannot fairly charge it to anything but fortune, but when a man makes good and temperate use of the power which nature has given him, as in my own case, all the world ought in justice to commend his character. However, though I might advance this argument in my behalf, I shall never be found to have had anything to do with speeches for the courts.
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You can judge this from my habits of life, from which, indeed, you can get at the truth much better than from the lips of my accusers; for no one is, I think, blind to the fact that all people are wont to spend their time in the places where they elect to gain their livelihood.
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And you will observe that those who live upon your contracts and the litigation connected with them are all but domiciled in the courts of law, while no one has ever seen me either at the council-board,
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or at the preliminaries,
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or in the courts,
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or before the arbitrators
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; on the contrary, I have kept aloof from all these more than any of my fellow-citizens.
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Moreover, you will find that these men are able to carry on a profitable business in
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alone; if they were to sail to any other place they would starve to death; while my resources, which this fellow has exaggerated, have all come to me from abroad.
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Then again you will find associated with them either men who are themselves in evil case or who want to ruin others, while in my company are those who of all the Hellenes lead the most untroubled lives.
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But you have heard also from my accuser that I have received many great presents from Nicocles, the king of the Salaminians.
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And yet, can any one of you be persuaded that Nicocles made me these presents in order that he might learn how to plead cases in court—he who dispensed justice, like a master, to others in their disputes? So, from what my accuser has himself said, it is easy for you to conclude that I have nothing to do with litigation.
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Nay, everyone is aware of this also, that there is a superabundance of men who produce speeches for litigants in the courts. Nevertheless you will not find that any one of them, numerous as they are, has ever been thought worthy to have pupils, while I, as my accuser states, have had more than all the rest together who are occupied with philosophy. Yet how can anyone think that people who are so far apart in their ways of life are engaged in the same occupations?
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But although I could point out many contrasts between my own career and that of the pleaders in the courts, I believe that the quickest way to disabuse your mind of this confusion would be to show that people do not study under me what my accuser says they do, and that I am not clever at the kind of oratory which has to do with private disputes.
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For I think, now that the charge under which I formerly labored has been disproved, you are anxious to change your attitude and want to hear from me what sort of eloquence it is which has occupied me and given me so great a reputation. Whether, indeed, it is going to profit me to speak the truth, I am not sure; for it is hard to conjecture what is in your thoughts. Yet, for all that, I am going to speak to you absolutely without reserve.
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For I should blush before my associates, if, after having told them again and again that I should be glad to have everyone of my fellow-citizens know the life I lead and the speeches which I compose, I did not now lay them open before you, but appeared rather to attempt to hide them away. Be assured, therefore, that you shall hear from me the whole truth, and in this spirit give me your attention.
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First of all, then, you should know that there are no fewer branches of composition in prose than in verse. For some men have devoted their lives to researches in the genealogies of the demi-gods; others have made studies in the poets; others have elected to compose histories of wars; while still others have occupied themselves with dialogue,
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and are called dialecticians.
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It would, however, be no slight task to attempt to enumerate all the forms of prose, and I shall take up only that which is pertinent to me, and ignore the rest. For there are men who, albeit they are not strangers to the branches which I have mentioned, have chosen rather to write discourses, not for private disputes, but which deal with the world of Hellas, with affairs of state, and are appropriate to be delivered at the Pan-Hellenic assemblies—discourses which, as everyone will agree, are more akin to works composed in rhythm and set to music than to the speeches which are made in court.
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For they set forth facts in a style more imaginative and more ornate; they employ thoughts which are more lofty and more original, and, besides, they use throughout figures of speech in greater number and of more striking character.
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All men take as much pleasure in listening to this kind of prose as in listening to poetry, and many desire to take lessons in it, believing that those who excel in this field are wiser and better and of more use to the world than men who speak well in court.
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For they know that while the latter owe to a capacity for intrigue their expertness in forensic debate, the former have drawn from their pursuit of wisdom the eloquence which I have described; that while those who are thought to be adept in court procedure are tolerated only for the day when they are engaged in the trial, the devotees of philosophy are honored and held in high esteem in every society and at all times;
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that, furthermore, while the former come to be despised and decried as soon as they are seen two or three times in court, the latter are admired more and more as they become better and more widely known; and, finally, that while clever pleaders are sadly unequal to the higher eloquence, the exponents of the latter could, if they so desired, easily master also the oratory of the courts.
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Reflecting on these facts, and considering it to be by far the better choice, they elect to have a part in that culture wherein, it would appear, neither have I myself been an alien but have, on the contrary, won a far more gracious reputation. Now you have heard the whole truth about my power, my philosophy, my profession, or whatever you care to call it.
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However, I want to set up for myself a more difficult standard than for other people, and to make a proposition which may seem over-rash for my years. For I ask you not only to show me no mercy, if the oratory which I cultivate is harmful, but to inflict on me the extreme penalty if it is not superior to any other.
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But I should not have made so bold a proposal, if I were not about to show you what my eloquence is and to make it very easy for you to pass judgement upon it.
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For it is this way: the best and fairest defense, in my opinion, is that which enables the judges to know the facts, so far as this is possible, in regard to the issues on which they are to vote, and which leaves no room for them to go astray in their judgement or to be in doubt as to which party speaks the truth.
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If, however, I were being tried for some criminal act, I should not have been able to produce the act itself before your eyes but you would have had to conjecture the facts from what I said and pass judgement as best you might. But since I am charged with offending by my words, I think that I shall be in a better position to make you see the truth;
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for I shall present in evidence the actual words which I have spoken and written, so that you will vote upon my discourses, not from conjecture, but with clear knowledge of their nature. I cannot, however, present them all in complete form; for the time which has been allowed me is too short.
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But just as is done with fruits, I shall try to produce a sample of each kind. For when you have heard a small portion of them you will easily recognize my true character and appreciate the force of all my speeches.
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But I beg those of you who have read many times what you are now about to hear, not to expect new discourses from me on the present occasion nor think me burdensome because I repeat what has long been the talk of Athens. For if I were to repeat my orations in order to display my powers,
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I should reasonably be liable to this complaint; but now that I am on trial and in jeopardy I have no choice but to use my speeches in this fashion.
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For it would be the height of absurdity if in a case where my accuser denounces me for writing the kind of speeches which both hurt our city and corrupt our youth I used other speeches in my defense, when I can clear my name of the calumnies which are being heaped upon it by producing before you the very discourses of which he complains. I ask of you, then, for these reasons to bear with me and to lend me your support. But for the benefit of the others on the jury
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I shall attempt to proceed with my selections, after a further word of explanation to enable them to follow more easily what is said.
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The discourse which is to be submitted to you first was written at the time when the Lacedaemonians were the first power in Hellas, while our fortunes were at low ebb. In it I summon the Hellenes to make an expedition against the barbarians, and I dispute the right of the Lacedaemonians to take the lead.
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Developing this theme, I show that Athens has been author of all the advantages which the Hellenes now enjoy. Then, having concluded the account of these benefactions, and desiring to show more convincingly that leadership in the expedition is the right of Athens, I further try to prove that far greater honor is due to her for the perils she has faced in war than for her other benefactions.
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Now I thought that I should be able to go through these passages myself, but I find that my age hampers me and causes me to give out easily. So then, in order that I may not break down utterly while there are still many things which I must say, let the clerk begin at the place marked and read the passage on the hegemony.
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Isoc. 4.51
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As to the hegemony, then, it is easy enough for you to make up your minds from what has been read to you that it should by right belong to Athens. But, I beg of you, consider well whether I appear to you to corrupt the young by my words, or, on the contrary, to inspire them to a life of valor and of dangers endured for their country; whether I should justly be punished for the words which have been read, or whether, on the contrary, I deserve to have your deepest gratitude
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for having so glorified Athens and our ancestors and the wars which were fought in those days that the orators who had composed discourses on this theme have destroyed them all, being ashamed of their own efforts, while they who today are reputed to be clever dare no longer to speak upon this subject, but confess the feebleness of their own powers.
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But yet, although these things are true, you will find among those who are unable to create or say anything of value, but are past masters in criticizing and prejudicing the works of others, some who will say that all this is spoken “prettily” (for they will be too grudging to say “well”), but that those discourses are better and more profitable which denounce our present mistakes than those which praise our past deeds, and those which counsel us what we ought to do than those which recount ancient history.
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Well, then, in order that I may forestall even this objection, I shall abstain from defending the speech to which you have listened and shall attempt to bring before you a selection of equal length from another oration, in which it will be seen that I have given much attention to all these questions. At the beginning of this oration I speak on the question of making peace with the Chians, the Rhodians, and the Byzantines;
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and, after I have shown that it is to the advantage of Athens to end the war, I decry our dominion over the Hellenes and our sea-power, showing that it is no whit different, either in its conduct or in its results, from tyranny. I recall also the evils which that power has brought upon Athens, upon the Lacedaemonians, and upon all the others.
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After having dwelt upon this subject, deplored the misfortunes of Hellas, and urged Athens not to allow herself to remain in her present state, finally I summon her to a career of justice, I condemn the mistakes she is now making, and I counsel her as to her future policy. Now begin at the point where I start to discuss these matters and read this selection also to the jury.
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Isoc. 8.25
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You have heard parts of two discourses; I want now to run through a few topics from a third, in order that it may become even more evident to you that all my writings tend toward virtue and justice. The one which is about to be produced before you is addressed to Nicocles of Cyprus, who at that time was king, and is made up of advice to him as to how to rule over his people. It is not, however, composed in the same style as the extracts which have been read.
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For in them each part is always in accord and in logical connection with that which goes before; but in this, on the contrary, I detach one part from another, and breaking up the discourse, as it were, into what we call general heads, I strive to express in a few words each bit of counsel which I have to offer.
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But my reason for writing upon this subject was that I thought my advice would be the best means of aiding his understanding and at the same time the readiest means of publishing my own principles. It was with the same motive that I decided to present this discourse to you on the present occasion, not that it is the best written of my works, but that through it you will best see in what spirit I am wont to deal with princes as well as with private men;
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for you will see that I have expressed myself to Nicocles as a free man and an Athenian should, not paying court to his wealth nor to his power, but pleading the cause of his subjects, and striving with all my powers to secure for them the mildest government possible. And since in addressing a king I have spoken for his subjects, surely I would urge upon men who live under a democracy to pay court to the people.
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Now in the introduction and in the opening words of that discourse I reproach monarchs because they who more than others ought to cultivate their understanding are less educated than men in private station. After discussing this point, I enjoin upon Nicocles not to be easy-going and not to feel that he had taken up the royal office as one takes up the office of a priest, but to put aside his selfish pleasures and give his mind to his affairs.
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And I try to persuade him also that it ought to be revolting to his mind to see the base ruling over the good and the foolish giving orders to the wise, saying to him that the more vigorously he condemns folly in other men, the more should he cultivate his own understanding.
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Now then, begin where I have left off and read to the jury the rest of the discourse.
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Isoc. 3.14
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Now this is the last selection which I shall have the clerk read to you—and the last of such length which I shall use; since I am not going to refrain from quoting, at any rate briefly, from my earlier writings, but shall use whatever I may think appropriate to the present occasion. For it would be absurd, when I see other men making use of my words, if I alone should refrain from using what I have written in former days, especially now when I have chosen to repeat to you not merely small parts but whole divisions of my speeches. I shall, therefore, act in this matter as occasion may suggest.
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I said, I think, before these selections were read, that I asked not only to be adjudged guilty if my discourses are harmful but to be visited with the heaviest of punishments if they are not incomparable.
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If any of you then felt that my words were boastful and over-confident, they cannot longer justly be of this opinion; for I think that I have made good my promise and that the discourses which have been read to you are such as from the first I maintained that they were.
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But I want to say just a word in behalf of each of them and so make it still more manifest that what I then said and what I now say about them is true. First of all, tell me what eloquence could be more righteous or more just than one which praises our ancestors in a manner worthy of their excellence and of their achievements?
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Again, what could be more patriotic or more serviceable to Athens than one which shows that by virtue both of our other benefactions and of our exploits in war we have greater claims to the hegemony than the Lacedaemonians? And, finally, what discourse could have a nobler or a greater theme than one which summons the Hellenes to make an expedition against the barbarians and counsels them to be of one mind among themselves?
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Well, then, in the first speech I have discoursed upon these themes, and in those later quoted upon matters which, though less lofty, are by no means less fruitful or less advantageous to our city. And you will appreciate the power of these discourses if you will read them side by side with others written by orators of recognized ability and service to mankind.
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Now everyone would admit, I think, that our laws have been the source of very many and very great benefits to the life of humanity.
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But our enjoyment of these laws is a boon which, in the very nature of the case, is limited to the affairs of our state and to the engagements which you enter into with each other; whereas, if you would heed my words, you might direct the whole of
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with honor and justice and, at the same time, with advantage to Athens.
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Men of wisdom ought to concern themselves both for the interests of our city and for the interests of
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, but should give preference to the broader and worthier cause;
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and they ought, furthermore, to appreciate the fact that while any number of men both among the Hellenes and among the barbarians have been able to lay down laws, there are not many who can discourse upon questions of public welfare in a spirit worthy both of Athens and of
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.
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For these reasons, men who make it their duty to invent discourses of that kind should be held in higher esteem than those who propose and write down laws, inasmuch as they are rarer, have the more difficult task, and must have superior qualities of mind. Especially is this true in our day;
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for, at the time when the human race was beginning to come into existence and to settle together in cities,
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it was natural that their searching should have been for much the same thing; but today, on the other hand, when we have advanced to the point where the discourses which have been spoken and the laws which have been laid down are innumerable, and where we single out the oldest among laws and the newest among discourses for our praise, these tasks no longer call for the same understanding;
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nay, those who have elected to make laws have had at their service a multitude of laws already made (for they have no need to search for new laws, but only to put forth the effort to collect those which are approved in other states, which anyone who so desires can easily do), while those who occupy themselves with oratory, seeing that most subjects have been seized upon and used by others before them, are in the opposite case; for if they repeat the same things which have been said in the past, they will be regarded as shameless babblers, and if they seek for what is new, they will have great difficulty in finding it. That is why I stated that, while both are entitled to your praise, they are the more entitled to it who are able to execute the harder task.
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I maintain also that if you compare me with those who profess
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to turn men to a life of temperance and justice, you will find that my teaching is more true and more profitable than theirs. For they exhort their followers to a kind of virtue and wisdom which is ignored by the rest of the world and is disputed among themselves; I, to a kind which is recognized by all.
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They, again, are satisfied if through the prestige of their names they can draw a number of pupils into their society; I, you will find, have never invited any person to follow me, but endeavor to persuade the whole state to pursue a policy from which the Athenians will become prosperous themselves, and at the same time deliver the rest of the Hellenes from their present ills.
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And yet, when anyone devotes his life to urging all his fellow-countrymen to be nobler and juster leaders of the Hellenes, how is it conceivable that such a man should corrupt his followers? What man possessed of the power to discover discourses of this character would try to search for those that are pernicious and have to do with pernicious things, especially a man who has reaped from his works the rewards which I have had?
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For the writing and publication of them has won me distinction in many parts of the world and brought me many disciples, no one of whom would have remained with me had they not found in me the very kind of man they expected to find. In fact, although I have had so many pupils, and they have studied with me in some cases three, and in some cases four years, yet not one of them will be found to have uttered a word of complaint about his sojourn with me;
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on the contrary, when at the last the time would come for them to sail away to their parents or their friends at home, so happy did they feel in their life with me, that they would always take their leave with regret and tears. Well, then, whom ought you to believe? Those who know intimately both my words and my character, or a sycophant who knows nothing about me at all, but has chosen to make me his victim? Ought you to believe a man who is so unscrupulous and so brazen that,
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having indicted me for teaching the kind of eloquence which enables people to gain their own advantage contrary to justice, he has not brought before you the slightest evidence of this but has dwelt from the beginning to the end of his speech on the iniquity of corrupting our youth—as if anyone disputed that, or as if it were necessary for him to prove what all men concede, instead of showing simply that I have been guilty of this offense?
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Why, if anyone were to bring this fellow to trial for kidnapping or stealing or highway robbery, and, instead of proving that he had done any of these things, were to hold forth on the iniquity of each of these crimes, my opponent would reply that his accuser was mad and talked like a fool; yet he has, himself, used just such arguments and thinks that you do not see through him.
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I, however, believe that even the most simple-minded of people recognize that an accusation, to be convincing and to carry great weight, must not be one which may be employed equally well against the innocent, but one which can be applied only to the guilty. My accuser has made light of this fact, and has made a speech which is in no respect pertinent to the indictment.
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For he ought both to have produced before you the speeches by which I corrupt my associates and to have named to you the pupils who have been debased by association with me.
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However, he has done neither of these things, but has rejected the most legitimate form of accusation and attempted to lead you astray. I, on the contrary, shall base my defense only on grounds which are pertinent and just.
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I had my speeches read to you a moment ago; I shall now bring before you the men who have been associated with me from the time of my youth to the days of my old age, and from your own number I shall present men of my own years to bear witness to the truth of what I say. Among the first to begin studying with me were Eunomus, Lysitheides, and Callippus; and following them were Onetor, Anticles, Philonides, Philomelus, and Charmantides.
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All these men were crowned by
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with chaplets of gold,
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not because they were covetous of other people’s possessions, but because they were honorable men and had spent large sums of their private fortunes upon the city. Suppose whatever you like as to the nature of my relations with them;
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for the result, at any rate so far as the present issue is concerned, will be altogether to my advantage. For if you suppose that I was their counsellor and teacher, I should deserve from you greater gratitude than those who are maintained in the Prytaneum in recognition of excellence;
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for each of the latter has furnished to the city his own high qualities alone, whereas I have furnished those of all whom I have just now named to you.
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But if, on the other hand, you suppose that I, myself, had nothing to do with their achievements, but that I merely enjoyed their society and friendship, I consider that even this view is defense enough against the charges on which I am being tried. For if I have had the affection of men who have received rewards in recognition of excellence, but have nothing in common with the sycophant, then how, in all reason, could you judge me to be a corrupter of youth?
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Verily, I should be the most unfortunate of all men if, when others are esteemed better or worse, as the case may be, from the manner of their lives and from the character of their associates, I alone should be denied this basis of judgement; and if I, who have lived all my life in company with such men, and have kept myself above all criticism up to this point in my career, should be classed with those who from the manner of their lives and the character of their associates have got themselves a bad name. I should like to know what in the world my fate would have been if I had numbered among my associates anyone like my accuser, when, although I hate all his kind and am hated by them, I am yet subjected to this trial.
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Nor, I assure you, can my case be justly injured by the argument which certain of those who are entirely hostile to me may, perhaps, dare to put forth, namely, that I have associated with the men I have mentioned merely to the extent of having been seen conversing with them, whereas I have had as my disciples many of another sort, mischievous characters, whom I am trying to conceal from you. For I have ready at hand a reply which will refute and confound all calumnies of that sort.
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For I ask this of you: If any of those who have been associated with me have turned out to be good men in their relations to the state, to their friends, and to their own households—I ask you to give them the praise and not to be grateful to me on their account; but if, on the other hand, any of them have turned out to be bad—the kind of men who lay information, hale people into court, and covet the property of others—then to let the penalty be visited on me.
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What proposition could be less invidious or more fair than one which claims no credit for those who are honorable, but offers to submit to punishment for any who have become depraved? And these are no idle words; on the contrary, if anyone can name anyone of that kind to you, I yield the floor
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for this purpose to my accuser or to anyone else who may desire it—not that there are not persons who would gladly perjure themselves to my harm, but that they would be shown up to you at once, and the injury would fall upon them, not upon me . . .