imputation. Listen, then: to some of you perhaps I
shall appear to jest, yet be assured that I shall tell you the whole
truth. For I, O Athenians! have acquired this character through nothing
else than a certain wisdom. Of what kind, then, is this wisdom? Perhaps
it is merely human wisdom. For in this, in truth, I appear to be wise.
They probably, whom I have just now mentioned, possessed a wisdom more
than human, otherwise I know not what to say about it; for I am not
acquainted with it, and whosoever says I am, speaks falsely, and for the
purpose of calumniating me. But, O Athenians! do not cry out against me,
even though I should seem to you to speak somewhat arrogantly. For the
account which I am going to give you is not my own; but I shall refer to
an authority whom you will deem worthy of credit. For I shall adduce to
you the god at Delphi as a witness of my wisdom, if I have any, and of
what it is. You doubtless know Chaerepho: he was my associate from youth,
and the associate of most of you; he accompanied you in your late exile,
and returned with you. You know, then, what kind of a man Chaerepho was,
how earnest in whatever he undertook. Having once gone to Delphi, he
ventured to make the following inquiry of the oracle (and, as I said, O
Athenians! do not cry out), for he asked if there was any one wiser than
I. The Pythian thereupon answered that there was not one wiser; and of
this, his brother here will give you proofs, since he himself is dead.

6. Consider, then, why I mention these things: it is because I am going
to show you whence the calumny against me arose. For when I heard this,
I reasoned thus with myself, What does the god mean? What enigma is
this? For I am not conscious to myself that I am wise, either much or
little. What, then, does he mean by saying that I am the wisest? For
assuredly he does not speak falsely: that he could not do. And for a
long time I was in doubt what he meant; afterward, with considerable
difficulty, I had recourse to the following method of searching out his
meaning. I went to one of those who have the character of being wise,
thinking that there, if anywhere, I should confute the oracle, and show
in answer to the response that This man is wiser than I, though you
affirmed that I was the wisest. Having, then, examined this man (for
there is no occasion to mention his name; he was, however, one of our
great politicians, in examining whom I felt as I proceed to describe, O