Neither Natural Philosopher nor Paid Teacher

Let us take up from the beginning, then, what the accusation is from which 19b the slander against me has arisen — the slander Meletus relied on when he brought this indictment against me. Very well: what did the slanderers say when they slandered me? I must read out their sworn statement as if they were prosecutors: "Socrates is guilty of wrongdoing: he busies himself inquiring into the things beneath the earth and in the heavens, he makes the weaker argument the stronger, 19c and he teaches these same things to others." It is something like that. You have seen it yourselves in the comedy of Aristophanes:¹ a Socrates being swung around up there, claiming that he walks on air and talking a great deal of other nonsense about things of which I understand nothing, great or small. And I do not say this to disparage such knowledge, if anyone is wise about such things — I would not want to be prosecuted by Meletus on so grave a charge! — but the fact is, men of Athens, I have no part in these things. 19d I offer most of you as witnesses, and I ask all of you who have ever heard me in conversation — and there are many such among you — to inform and tell one another. Tell one another, then, whether any of you has ever heard me discussing such matters, at length or briefly. From this you will recognise that the other things most people say about me are of the same kind.

But there is nothing in any of this; nor, if you have heard from anyone that I undertake to educate people and charge 19e money for it, is that true either. Though this too seems to me a fine thing, if one is able to educate people, as Gorgias of Leontini is, and Prodicus of Ceos, and Hippias of Elis.²

For each of these men, gentlemen, can go into any city and persuade the young — who may associate free of charge with whichever of their own fellow citizens they please — 20a to leave the company of those others and associate with them instead, paying money for it and being grateful besides. Indeed, there is another wise man here, from Paros, who I learned was visiting our city. For I happened to meet a man who has spent more money on sophists than all the others together, Callias the son of Hipponicus.³ So I asked him — for he has two sons: "Callias," I said, "if your two sons had been born colts or calves, we could find and hire an overseer for them who 20b would make them fine and good in the excellence proper to them; and he would be some expert in horses or in farming. But now, since they are human beings, whom do you have in mind to take as their overseer? Who has knowledge of this kind of excellence, the excellence of a human being and a citizen? For I suppose you have looked into it, since you have sons. Is there such a person," I said, "or not?" "Certainly," he said. "Who?" I said. "Where is he from, and how much does he charge?" "Evenus, Socrates," he said, "from Paros: five minae."⁴ And I counted Evenus blessed, if he truly 20c has this skill and teaches it at so reasonable a price. I, at any rate, would be preening myself and giving myself airs if I knew these things; but I do not know them, men of Athens.

1. Aristophanes' comedy The Clouds (423 BC), in which Socrates appears hanging in a basket above the stage, "walking on air and contemplating the sun". ↩
2. Famous sophists: travelling teachers who gave instruction in rhetoric and practical wisdom for high fees. ↩
3. One of the richest men in Athens, famous as a host and patron of the sophists. ↩
4. A mina was a hundred drachmas; a drachma was roughly a day's wage for a skilled worker. ↩