Antidosis

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.