With this lecture we begin our two-part treatment of what is probably the most famous and most widely read document in the history of Western philosophy, Plato’s Apology of Socrates to the Jury. After a few introductory remarks, we will begin to consider the first and longest part of the dialogue—what might be called the defense speech proper—in which Socrates attempts to refute the official charges against him. Yet it is striking how little he says about the two main charges against him. He never once asserts that he does believe in the gods in whom the city believes; and he never quite denies that there are young people who follow him and who learn from him, which amounts to an admission that he is indeed an influential teacher. More intriguing still is his insistence that there are earlier charges against him— dating back to Aristophanes’s Clouds! In dealing with these earlier accusers, Socrates gives a fascinating account of what prompted him one day to become the philosopher noto