| Apology | |
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[17a - 18a] [18b - 20c] [20d - 24b] [24c - 25e] [26a - 28a] [28b - 30d] [30e - 31c] [31d - 33b]
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| But I shall be asked, Why do people delight in continually | Jowett's Notes |
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33c |
conversing with you? I have told you already, Athenians, the | ||
| whole truth about this matter: they like to hear the | |||
| cross-examination of the pretenders to wisdom; there is | |||
| amusement in it. Now this duty of cross-examining other men has | |||
 Plato was one of Socrates' followers |
been imposed upon me by God; | ||
| and has been signified to me by | |||
| oracles, visions, and in every way in | |||
| which the will of divine power was | |||
| ever intimated to any one. This is | |||
| true, O Athenians; or, if not true, | |||
| would be soon refuted. If I am or | |||
have been corrupting the youth,  |
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33d |
those of them who are now grown up and become sensible that | ||
| I gave them bad advice in the days of their youth should come | |||
| forward as accusers, and take their revenge; or if they do not | |||
| like to come themselves, some of their relatives, fathers, brothers, | |||
| or other kinsmen, should say what evil their families have suffered | |||
| at my hands. Now is their time. Many of them I see in the court. | The parents and kinsmen of those whom he is supposed to have corrupted do not come forward and testify against him. | ||
33e |
There is Crito, who is of the same age and of the same deme with | ||
| myself, and there is Critobulus his son, whom I also see. Then | |||
| again there is Lysanias of Sphettus, who is the father of | |||
| Aeschines - he is present; and also there is Antiphon of | |||
| Cephisus, who is the father of Epigenes; and there are the | |||
| brothers of several who have associated with me. There is | |||
| Nicostratus the son of Theosdotides,and the brother of | |||
| Theodotus (now Theodotus himself is dead, and therefore he, at | |||
| any rate, will not seek to stop him); and there is Paralus the son | |||
| of Demodocus, who had a brother Theages; and Adeimantus the | |||
34a |
son of Ariston, whose brother Plato is present: and | ||
 Ruins of Plato's
Academy |
Aeantodorus, who is the brother | ||
| of Apollodorus, whom I also | |||
| see. I might mention a great many | |||
| others, some of whom Meletus | |||
| should have produced as witnesses | |||
| in the course of his speech; and let | |||
| him still produce them, if he has | |||
forgotten - I will make way for him.  |
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| And let him say, if he has any testimony of the sort which he can | |||
| produce. Nay, Athenians, the very opposite is the truth. For all | |||
| these are ready to witness on behalf of the corrupter, of the | |||
| injurer of their kindred, as Meletus and Anytus call me; not the | |||
34b |
corrupted youth only - there might have been a motive for that | ||
| - but their uncorrupted elder relatives. Why should they too | |||
| support me with their testimony? Why, indeed, except for the | |||
| sake of truth and justice, and because they know that I am | |||
| speaking the truth, and that Meletus is a liar. | |||
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