[156]
But Leptines has used a different measure
and says that if anyone claims a return from you, “he shall be
disfranchised, and his property shall be confiscated.” There you have
two penalties. “The process shall be by laying information or by
summary arrest; and if he be convicted, he shall be liable under the law which
provides for the case of a man holding office while in debt to the
treasury.” Death is what he means, for such is the punishment in that
case. Why, here are three penalties!1 Is it not monstrously hard, Athenians, if
it proves more serious in your courts to ask for a return for good service than
to be convicted of some heinous crime?
1 All this is pure sophistry.ἀτιμία involving loss of property was not a double penalty, but merely one degree of ἀτιμία. Moreover, the law cited refers to penalties assessed by the courts, not to those prescribed by statute. Lastly, the so-called third penalty was imposed for the additional offence of contempt, where one who had incurred ἀτιμία nevertheless claimed ἀτέλεια.
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by C. A. Vince, M. A. and J. H. Vince, M.A. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1926.
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