But in order that I may not overtax your patience by speaking at undue length before coming to the subject, I shall leave off this discussion and attempt forthwith to inform you on the question which you are to vote upon. Please read the indictment.Here, as elsewhere, Isocrates preserves the fiction of a court scene by calling upon the clerk to read the formal charge.

Here in the indictment my accuser endeavors to vilify me, charging that I corrupt young menAn echo of Plat. Apol. 23c-d. by teaching them to speak and gain their own advantage in the courts contrary to justice, while in his speech he makes me out to be a man whose equal has never been known either among those who hang about the law-courts or among the devotees of philosophy; for he declares that I have had as my pupils not only private persons but orators, generals, kings, and despots;See General Introd. p. xxix. and that I have received from them and am now receiving enormous sums of money.