The Opening of the Defence

17a How you, men of Athens, have been affected by my accusers, I do not know. As for me, I very nearly forgot who I was, so persuasively did they speak. And yet, one might say, they have said nothing that is true. But of the many lies they told, one in particular amazed me: when they said that you must be on your guard not to be deceived by me, 17b because I am a clever speaker. That they were not ashamed to say this, when they will at once be refuted by me in fact, as soon as I show myself to be not the least bit clever at speaking — that seemed to me the most shameless thing about them; unless, of course, they call a clever speaker the man who tells the truth. If that is what they mean, I would agree that I am an orator — though not of their kind. These men, as I say, have said little or nothing true; but from me you will hear the whole truth. Not, by Zeus, men of Athens, in speeches elegantly phrased like theirs, 17c adorned with fine words and expressions; you will hear things said at random, in whatever words come to hand — for I trust that what I say is just — and let none of you expect anything else. It would hardly be fitting, gentlemen, for a man of my age to come before you making up phrases like a youth. And indeed, men of Athens, I earnestly beg and entreat this of you: if you hear me making my defence in the same language I am accustomed to use in the market-place by the money-changers' tables, where many of you have heard me, and elsewhere, do not 17d be surprised or make an uproar on that account. For this is how things stand. This is the first time I have come before a court, at the age of seventy; I am therefore simply a stranger to the manner of speaking here.

Just as, then, if I really were a foreigner, you would surely pardon me for speaking in the dialect and manner 18a in which I had been brought up, so now too I make this request of you — a just one, as it seems to me: to pay no attention to my manner of speech — it may be worse, it may be better — but to consider this alone and to give your minds to this: whether what I say is just or not. For that is the virtue of a judge; the virtue of a speaker is to tell the truth.