1. I cannot claim to have read all the available literature, but among what I have read the following can be recommended: R. E. Allen, Socrates and Legal Obligation (University of Minnesota Press, 1980); K. J. Dover, ‘The Freedom of the Intellectual in Greek Society’, Talanta, 7 (1976), pp. 24–54; M. I. Finley, ‘Socrates and Athens’, in Aspects of Antiquity (Chatto & Windus, 1968). I do not, of course, agree with everything all these writers say.

2. Diogenes Laertius, despite writing late in the third century AD, is a valuable independent witness, and claims to preserve the original wording of the official indictment. Note also that the better version of the charges, in Memoirs, again suggests that Defence is earlier.