Antidosis

In other states, when they try a man for his life, they cast a portion of the votes for the defendant,[*](The reference seems to be to some custom somewhere by which in capital cases a number of the votes of the jury were at the outset of the trial given by grace to the defendant. No such custom is, so far as I know, mentioned anywhere else.) but with us the accused has not even an equal chance with the sycophants;[*](Isocrates, like Socrates (Plat. Apol. 37a-b), complains that defendants on a capital charge in other states were given a better chance.) nay, while we take our solemn oath at the beginning of each year that we will hear impartially both accusers and accused,

we depart so far from this in practice, that when the accuser makes his charges we give ear to whatever he may say; but when the accused endeavors to refute them, we sometimes do not endure even to hear his voice.[*](Cf. Isoc. 8.3; Dem. 18.1-2.) Those states in which an occasional citizen is put to death without a trial we condemn as unfit to live in, yet are blind to the fact that we are in the same case when we do not hear with equal good will both sides of the contest.

But what is most absurd of all is the fact that when one of us is on trial, he denounces the calumniators, but when he sits in judgement upon another, he is no longer of the same mind regarding them. Yet, surely, intelligent men ought to be such when they are judges of others, as they would expect others to be to them in like case, bearing in mind the fact that because of the audacity of the sycophants it is impossible to foresee what man may be placed in peril and be compelled to plead, even as I am now doing, before men who are to decide his fate by their votes.

Indeed no one may rely on the honesty of his life as a guarantee that he will be able to live securely in Athens; for the men who have chosen to neglect what is their own and to plot against what belongs to others do not keep their hands off citizens who live soberly and bring before you only those who do evil; on the contrary, they advertise their powers in their attacks upon men who are entirely innocent, and so get more money from those who are clearly guilty.[*](Compare the opposite ideal in Isoc. 7.24; Isoc. 4.76; Isoc. 12.145 ff.)

This is exactly what Lysimachus had in mind when he subjected me to this trial; for he thought that this suit against me would bring him profit from other sources, and he expected that if he won in the debate with me, whom he calls the teacher of other men, everyone would regard his power as irresistible.

He is confident that he will win easily; for he sees that you are over-ready to accept slanders and calumnies, while I, because of my age and my lack of experience in contests of this kind,[*](Cf. Plat. Apol. 17d. Isocrates repeatedly echoes the defense of Socrates. See General Introd. p. xvii and Vasold, Ueber das Verhältniss der isocrateischen Rede *PERI\ A)NTIDO/SEWS Platons Apologia Socratis.) shall not be able to reply to them in a manner worthy of my reputation;

for I have so lived all my life till now that no man either under the oligarchy or under the democracy has ever charged me with any offense, whether of violence or injury,[*](The distinction between U(/BRIS(violence) and A)DIKI/A(injury) is hardly technical. It seems to be between crimes of personal violence, such as assault, and other offenses against the law in general.) nor will any man be found to have sat either as arbitrator[*](Certain issues might be kept out of court by being referred to an arbitrator, either agreed upon by the parties concerned or designated by lot from the public arbitrators provided for by law. See Lipsius, Das attische Recht p. 220 ff.) or as judge upon my actions. For I have schooled myself to avoid giving any offense to others, and, when I have been wronged by others, not to seek revenge in court but to adjust the matter in dispute by conferring with their friends.

All this has availed me nothing; on the contrary, I who have lived to this advanced age without complaint from anyone could not be in greater jeopardy if I had wronged all the world. Yet I am not utterly discouraged because I face so great a penalty;[*](Isocrates seems to pretend throughout that he, like Socrates, is being tried on a capital charge.) no, if you will only hear me with good will, I am very confident that those who have been misled as to my pursuits and have been won over by my would-be slanderers will promptly change their views, while those who think of me as I really am will be still more confirmed in their opinion.

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 men[*](An 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.

He has made his accusation in this manner, thinking that his extravagant assertions about me and my wealth and the great number of my pupils would arouse the envy of all his hearers, while my alleged activities in the law-courts would stir up your anger and hate; and when judges are affected by these very passions, they are most severe upon those who are on trial. However, in the one charge he has grossly exaggerated the facts and in the other he lies outright, as I think I can easily show.

Let me ask you, however, not to pay any attention to what you have heard about me in the past from my would-be slanderers and calumniators, not to credit charges which have been made without proof or trial, and not to be influenced by the suspicions which have been maliciously implanted in you by my enemies, but to judge me to be the kind of man which the accusation and the defense in this trial will show me to be; for if you decide the case on this basis, you will have the credit of judging honorably and in accordance with the law, while I, for my part, shall obtain my complete deserts.

Now, in fact, no citizen has ever been harmed either by my “cleverness” or by my writings, and I think the most convincing proof of this is furnished by this trial; for if any man had been wronged by me, even though he might have held his tongue up till now, he would not have neglected the present opportunity, but would have come forward to denounce me or bear witness against me. For when one who has never in his life heard a single disparaging word from me has put me in so great peril, depend upon it, had any suffered injury at my hands, they would now attempt to have their revenge.[*](Cf. Plat. Apol. 33d.)

For surely it is neither probable nor possible both that I, on the one hand, have wronged many people and that those, on the other hand, who have been visited with misfortune through me are silent and refrain from accusing me; nay, are kinder to me when my life is in peril than those who have suffered no injury, especially since all they have to do is to testify to the wrongs I have done them in order to obtain the fullest reparation.

But neither in the past nor now will anyone be found to have made any such complaint. If, therefore, I were to agree with my accuser and concede his claim that I am the “cleverest” of men and that I have never had an equal as a writer of the kind of speeches which are offensive to you, it would be much more just to give me credit for being an honest man than to punish me;

for when a man has superior talents whether for speech or for action, one cannot fairly charge it to anything but fortune, but when a man makes good and temperate use of the power which nature has given him, as in my own case, all the world ought in justice to commend his character. However, though I might advance this argument in my behalf, I shall never be found to have had anything to do with speeches for the courts.[*](See General Introd. p. xx.)

You can judge this from my habits of life, from which, indeed, you can get at the truth much better than from the lips of my accusers; for no one is, I think, blind to the fact that all people are wont to spend their time in the places where they elect to gain their livelihood.

And you will observe that those who live upon your contracts and the litigation connected with them are all but domiciled in the courts of law, while no one has ever seen me either at the council-board,[*](The SUNE/DRION, a board made up of the six junior archons called Thesmothetae, had jurisdiction over a large number of offenses against the state.) or at the preliminaries,[*](The A)NA/KRISIS was any preliminary hearing before an appropriate magistrate.) or in the courts,[*](The regular Heliastic jury-panels. See Isoc. 7.54, note.) or before the arbitrators[*](Cf. Isoc. 15.27, note.); on the contrary, I have kept aloof from all these more than any of my fellow-citizens.

Moreover, you will find that these men are able to carry on a profitable business in Athens alone; if they were to sail to any other place they would starve to death; while my resources, which this fellow has exaggerated, have all come to me from abroad.[*](There is a story that Isocrates charged no fees to Athenian pupils.) Then again you will find associated with them either men who are themselves in evil case or who want to ruin others, while in my company are those who of all the Hellenes lead the most untroubled lives.

But you have heard also from my accuser that I have received many great presents from Nicocles, the king of the Salaminians.[*](See Isocrates, Vol. I. p. 39, L.C.L.) And yet, can any one of you be persuaded that Nicocles made me these presents in order that he might learn how to plead cases in court—he who dispensed justice, like a master, to others in their disputes? So, from what my accuser has himself said, it is easy for you to conclude that I have nothing to do with litigation.