[17]
But that Aristogeiton has been convicted
on all the heads of the information, and that he has not a single
counter-argument worth considering, can be easily proved. For there are two
objects, men of Athens, for which
all laws are framed—to deter any man from doing what is wrong, and, by
punishing the transgressor, to make the rest better men; and it will be shown
that both these objects will be secured by the punishment of the defendant. For
by his original transgressions he has incurred the due penalties, and for his
refusal to acquiesce in them he is now brought into court to receive your
punishment; so that no one has any excuse left for acquitting him.
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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