[151]
Such, then, being the
events that make up the life of this shameless blackguard, some of his
associates came to me, gentlemen of the jury, urging me to retire and drop this
action; but finding me unmoved, they did not venture to assert that he was
innocent of all these crimes and would not deserve the severest penalty for his
deeds. They took this line of argument. “He has already been convicted
and condemned; what fine do you expect the court to impose on him? Do you not
see that he is a rich man and will talk about the equipment of war-galleys and
other public services? Then take care that he does not beg himself off by such
pleas, and make you his laughingstock, when he pays the State a far less sum
than he now offers you.”
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by A. T. Murray, Ph.D., LL.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1939.
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