[227]
And yet now, when his guilt has been established, when the
people, sitting in a sacred building, have anticipated his condemnation, when
all the other crimes of this miscreant have been sifted, when it has fallen to
your lot to be his judges and it lies in your power to conclude the whole affair
by a single vote—now, I say, will you hesitate to succor me, to
gratify the people, to give all a lesson in sobriety, and to enjoy perfect
safety for the rest of your lives, by making an example of the defendant for the
instruction of others?Therefore for all the
reasons that I have urged, and above all for the honor of the god whose festival
he has been convicted of profaning, punish this man by casting the vote which
piety and justice alike demand.
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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