if any one of you has ever heard me
conversing little or much on such subjects. And from this you will know
that other things also, which the multitude assert of me, are of a
similar nature.

4. However not one of these things is true; nor, if you have heard from
any one that I attempt to teach men, and require payment, is this true.
Though this, indeed, appears to me to be an honorable thing, if one
should be able to instruct men, like Gorgias the Leontine, Prodicus the
Cean, and Hippias the Elean. For each of these, O Athenians! is able, by
going through the several cities, to persuade the young men, who can
attach themselves gratuitously to such of their own fellow-citizens as
they please, to abandon their fellow-citizens and associate with them,
giving them money and thanks besides. There is also another wise man
here, a Parian, who, I hear, is staying in the city. For I happened to
visit a person who spends more money on the sophists than all others
together: I mean Callias, son of Hipponicus. I therefore asked him, for
he has two sons, "Callias," I said, "if your two sons were colts or
calves, we should have had to choose a master for them, and hire a
person who would make them excel in such qualities as belong to their
nature; and he would have been a groom or an agricultural laborer. But
now, since your sons are men, what master do you intend to choose for
them? Who is there skilled in the qualities that become a man and a
citizen? For I suppose you must have considered this, since you have
sons. Is there any one," I said, "or not?" "Certainly," he answered.
"Who is he?" said I, "and whence does he come? and on what terms does he
teach?" He replied, "Evenus the Parian, Socrates, for five minae." And I
deemed Evenus happy, if he really possesses this art, and teaches
admirably. And I too should think highly of myself, and be very proud,
if I possessed this knowledge, but I possess it not, O Athenians.

5. Perhaps, one of you may now object: "But, Socrates, what have you
done, then? Whence have these calumnies against you arisen? For surely
if you had not busied yourself more than others, such a report and story
would never have got abroad, unless you had done something different
from what most men do. Tell us, therefore, what it is, that we may not
pass a hasty judgment on you." He who speaks thus appears to me to speak
justly, and I will endeavor to show you what it is that has occasioned
me this character and