Note: There are only two natural breaks in the
text as Plato wrote it, both of which appear near
the end. These notes on the text were made later,
sections beginning or breaking off where a new
theme or topic is introduced or dropped. I have
used sections demarcated according to the Stephanus
numbers (the page numbers from the 1578 complete
works edited by Henri Estienne ("Stephanus" in
Latin)). For Plato, the Stephanus numbers are the
standard page references, and most editions of
Plato's work contain the Stephanus numbers along
the margins.
Summary
Socrates opens his case with an appeal to the
jury to listen to him openly and to pardon him if
he slips into his usual conversational style. His
accusers have already spoken against him in the
flowery manner common in courts of law, and have
warned the jury not to be deceived by Socrates, a
skillful speaker. Socrates immediately addresses
himself to that issue, claiming that while his
accusers' speeches contained great refinement and
skill, he lacks the ability to speak so well.
However, he remarks, he will speak the truth
whereas his opponents uttered only falsehood.
Socrates further contrasts himself with his
accusers, suggesting that while their rhetorical
flourishes were the result of prepared speech, his
speech will be fully improvised, issuing thoughts
as they come to him. His accusers' artificial and
studied speech would be unbecoming of a man of his
age (Socrates was seventy at the time of the
trial), and so he hopes to address the jury simply
by saying what is true.
He asks the jury's forgiveness if he slips into his
usual conversational style. This is his first
appearance in a court of law, he explains, and so
he is completely unfamiliar with the language of
the place. As the jurors might forgive a foreigner
for speaking in his accustomed dialect, Socrates
asks their patience if he, a stranger to the law
courts, might speak as he normally would as well.
Rather than pay attention to his style, Socrates
asks the jurors to pay attention to the substance
of his speech and consider whether what he says is
true or not.
Commentary
The sharp contrast that runs throughout this first
section lies between the studied, artificial--and
false--speech of Socrates' accusers, and Socrates'
own improvised, conversational--and true--speech.
At this time in Athens, there were a great many
sophists, professional teachers who would instruct
the wealthy youth of the city in oratory.
Throughout his works, Plato gives a rather unkind
picture of these sophists--it seems they were
generally considered shallow thinkers who taught
budding politicians to overcome sound reasoning
with shoddy reasoning by means of flowery rhetoric.
We shall see that Socrates has often been
mistakenly classed with these sophists, whom he
despises. The speech of his accusers, then, comes
from careful training with sophists, who have
taught them to speak convincingly and yet falsely.
By contrasting himself with these men, Socrates at
once invokes the common prejudice against sophistry
against his accusers and distances himself from
their practices. He remarks (17b) that he is only
a skillful speaker if by "skillful speaker" is
meant someone who speaks the truth.
This first section immediately thrusts upon us the
depth and richness of Socratic irony. While
Socrates professes to be a plain man who speaks
only simple truths, he is employing some very
clever rhetoric in doing so. Apparently, it was a
common rhetorical practice in the law courts to
profess one's lack of skill in public speaking. We
shouldn't take Socrates' words at face value: in
claiming that he is not a clever speaker, he is in
fact showing himself to be very clever indeed. It
would be more accurate to say that Socrates is
parodying the usual rhetoric (which was undoubtedly
employed by his accusers), turning it on itself.
He is using rhetorical devices to show the
uselessness of rhetorical devices, thereby
devaluing his accusers' words. This act of turning
his opponents' own words against themselves is
typical of the kind of irony Socrates uses so
skillfully. We shall see that after this
introductory flourish, Socrates does indeed slip
into his normal conversational tone, having
sufficiently parodied his opponents.
