| Apology | |
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(1) Opening
Remarks |
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| 17a | How you, O Athenians, have been affected by my accusers, I | Jowett's Notes |
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| cannot tell; but I know that they almost made me forget who I |
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| was so persuasively did they speak; and yet they have hardly | |||
| uttered a word of truth. But of the many falsehoods told by | |||
 Law Court in Athens whereSocrates would have given this
speech. |
them, there was one | ||
| which quite amazed | |||
| me; I mean when they | |||
| said that you should be | |||
| upon your guard and | |||
| not allow yourselves to | |||
| be deceived by the force | |||
| of my eloquence. To say this, when they were certain to be detected | Socrates begs to be allowed to speak in his accustomed manner. | ||
| as soon as I opened my lips and proved myself to be anything but | |||
17b |
a great speaker, did indeed appear to me most shameless unless | ||
| by the force of eloquence they mean the force of truth; for if such | |||
| their meaning, I admit that I am eloquent. But in how different | |||
| a way from theirs! Well, as I was saying, they have scarcely | |||
| spoken the truth at all; but from me you shall hear the whole | |||
| truth: not, however, delivered after their manner in a set | |||
| oration duly ornamented with words and phrases. No, by | |||
| heaven! but I shall use the words and arguments which occur | |||
| to me at the moment; for I am confident in the justice of my | |||
| cause: at my time of life I ought not to be appearing before | |||
| you, O men of Athens, in the character of a juvenile orator - | |||
17c |
let no one expect it of me. And I must beg of you to grant me | ||
| favor: If I defend myself in my accustomed manner, and you | |||
| hear me using the words which I have been in the habit of | |||
| using in the agora, at the tables of the money-changers, or | |||
 Ruins of the Agora |
anywhere else, I | ||
| would ask you not to | |||
| be surprised, and not | |||
| to interrupt me on this | |||
| account. For I am | |||
| more than seventy years | |||
| of age, and appearing | |||
| now for the first time in a court of law, I am quite a stranger to | |||
17d |
the language of the place; and therefore I would have you regard | ||
| me as if I were really a stranger, whom you would excuse if he | |||
| spoke in his native tongue, and after the fashion of his country: | |||
18a |
- Am I making an unfair request of you? Never mind the manner, | The judges must excuse Socrates if he defends himself in his own fashion. | |
| which may or may not be good; but think only of thetruth of my | |||
| words, and give heed to that: let the speaker speak truly and | |||
| the judge decide justly. | |||
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April 18, 2000
