The Rumors, and Where They Came From

Before addressing the formal charges, Socrates deals with something older and harder to fight: years of rumors and gossip. Many people on the jury grew up hearing that Socrates was dangerous. He has to address this first, or nothing else he says will land.

There are two kinds of accusers I have to answer. The old ones and the new ones.

The new ones are Meletus, Anytus, and Lycon. They are here today. I will answer them in a moment.

The old accusers are more dangerous. They have been accusing me for many years, and most of you have been hearing them since you were children. They told you a story about a man called Socrates who studied the stars and things under the earth, who made bad arguments sound good, and who taught other people to do the same. The comedian Aristophanes put me in one of his plays, swinging in a basket high above the stage, talking nonsense about the sky. People laughed. They remembered.

These old accusers are hard to answer because I cannot face them. They have no names. They worked on you when you were young, when you were easy to persuade, and when nobody was there to argue back. I have to fight shadows.

Let me try anyway.

None of it is true.

I know nothing about astronomy or what is under the earth. I have never taught those things. I have never charged anyone money for teaching anything. I do not have a school. If you have heard otherwise, you were told wrong.

I am a poor man. If I had been running some kind of profitable teaching business for years, I would not be poor. My poverty is proof.