The systematic and untiring efforts of my enemies, gentlemen, to do me every possible injury, by fair means or by foul, from the very moment of my arrival in this city, Four years earlier, in 403. are known to almost all of you, and it is unnecessary for me to pursue the subject. Instead, I shall make a request of you, gentlemen, a fair request, which it is as easy for you to grant as it is valuable for me to gain. Much of 1, 6, 7 and 9 consists of loci communes which recur in Lysias and Isocrates. Both they and Andocides were making use of the same handbook of proems.