[37]
You on your
part hold that in both private and public matters the torture is the most
certain of all methods of proof, and when slaves and freemen are both available,
and the truth of a matter is to be sought out, you make no use of the testimony
of the freemen, but seek to ascertain the truth by torturing the slaves; and
very properly, men of the jury. For of witnesses who have given testimony there
have been some ere now who have been thought not to tell the truth; but of
slaves put to the torture no one has ever been convicted of giving false
testimony.
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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