[146]
Let me give you a proof that my
account of the matter is correct. It would not have been lawful1 for you, gentlemen of
the jury, to assess any penalty, corporal or pecuniary,for imprisonment is a
corporal punishment, and therefore you could not have inflicted it as a penalty,
nor could it have been provided by statute, in cases where information is laid
or summary arrest is allowed, that “the Eleven shall put in the stocks
any man against whom information is laid, or who has been arrested,”
if it had been unlawful to imprison any offenders other than those who conspire
to betray the commonwealth, or to overthrow popular government, or tax-farmers
who do not satisfy their contract.
1 i.e. if, as Timocrates contends, imprisonment was repugnant to the spirit of Athenian law, the law would not have given you the option of imposing corporal or pecuniary punishment.
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