But when my eyes were opened, as I have said, to the fact that a greater number than I
 supposed had mistaken ideas about me, I began to ponder how I could show to them and to
 posterity the truth about my character, my life, and the education to which I am devoted,
 and not suffer myself to be condemned on these issues without a trial nor to remain, as I
 had just been, at the mercy of my habitual calumniators. And as I kept thinking upon it, I came ever to the same conclusion, namely, that the only
 way in which I could accomplish this was to compose a discourse which would be, as it
 were, a true image of my thought and of my whole life; for I hoped that this would serve
 both as the best means of making known the truth about me and, at the same time, as a
 monument, after my death, more noble than statues of bronze. Cf. Horace Odes 3.30.1 : monumentum aere
 perennius. Cf. Isoc. 9.73 ff. A bronze statue was erected to
 Isocrates by his pupil Timotheus. See General Introd. p. xxix. 
 I saw, however, that if I were to attempt a eulogy of myself, I should not be able to
 cover all the points which I proposed to discuss, nor should I succeed in treating them
 without arousing the displeasure or even the envy of my hearers. But it occurred to me
 that if I were to adopt the fiction of a trial and of a suit brought against me—if I were
 to suppose that a sycophant For the sycophants see Isoc. 8.128 , note. had brought an indictment and was
 threatening me with trouble “To make trouble ”— PRA/GMATA PARE/XEIN —was the common phrase for the
 persecution of the sycophants. Cf. 15. and that he was using the calumnies which
 had been urged against me in the suit about the exchange of property, while I, for my
 part, cast my speech in the form of a defense in court—in this way it would be possible to
 discuss to the best advantage all the points which I wanted to make. With these thoughts in mind I set myself to write this discourse—I who am no longer in
 the prime of youth but in my eighty-second year. Wherefore, you may well forgive me if my
 speech appears to be less vigorous For this apology cf.
 Isoc. 5.149 ; Isoc. 12.4 ;
 Isoc. Letter 6.6 . than those which I have
 published in the past. For, I assure you, it has not been an easy nor a simple task, but one of great
 difficulty; for while some things in my discourse are appropriate to be spoken in a
 court-room, others are out of place amid such controversies, being frank discussions about
 philosophy and expositions of its power. There is in it, also, matter which it would be
 well for young men to hear before they set out to gain knowledge and an education; and
 there is much, besides, of what I have written in the past, inserted in the present
 discussion, not without reason nor without fitness, but with due appropriateness to the
 subject in hand.