The Old Accusers

First, then, men of Athens, it is right for me to defend myself against the first false charges brought against me and against my first accusers, and after that against the later charges and the 18b later accusers. For many accusers have risen against me before you, for a long time now, many years, and they have said nothing true; and these I fear more than Anytus and his associates, formidable as they too are. But the others are more formidable, gentlemen. They took hold of most of you from childhood and tried to persuade you, accusing me — with no more truth — that there is a certain Socrates, a wise man, a thinker about the things in the heavens, who has investigated everything beneath the earth, and who makes the weaker argument the stronger. 18c These men, men of Athens, who have spread this rumour abroad, are my formidable accusers; for those who hear them believe that people who inquire into such things do not even believe in the gods. Besides, these accusers are many, and they have been accusing me for a long time now; what is more, they spoke to you at the age at which you were most ready to believe them, when some of you were children or youths, and they won their case by default, with no one to answer them. And what is most unreasonable of all is that one cannot even learn and 18d tell their names — except, perhaps, for one who happens to be a writer of comedies. All those who persuaded you through envy and slander, and those who, persuaded themselves, went on to persuade others — all these are the hardest to deal with. For it is not possible to bring any of them up here or to cross-examine any of them; I must simply fight with shadows, as it were, in making my defence, and cross-examine where no one answers. You too, then, must accept, as I say, that my accusers have been of two kinds: some who have accused me recently, and others 18e long ago, those I am speaking of; and you must agree that I ought to defend myself against these first. For you heard them accusing me earlier, and far more than these later ones.

Very well. I must make my defence, then, men of Athens, and try 19a to remove from your minds, in so short a time, the slander that you have held for so long. I should wish it to turn out so, if it is better for you and for me, and that I should accomplish something by my defence. But I think it is difficult, and I am well aware of what kind of task it is. Nevertheless, let this go as the god wills; the law must be obeyed, and I must make my defence.