[4]
Well, at whatever time the others might be
having their dinner, these men were already drunk and abusive, at first toward
our body-slaves, but in the end toward ourselves. For, alleging that the slaves
annoyed them with smoke while getting dinner, or were impudent toward them, or
whatever else they pleased, they used to beat them and empty their chamber-pots
over them, or befoul them with urine; there was nothing in the way of brutality
and outrage in which they did not indulge. When we saw this, we were annoyed and
at first expostulated with them, but they mocked at us, and would not desist,
and so our whole mess in a body—not I alone apart from the
rest—went to the general and told him what was going on.
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by Norman W. DeWitt, Ph.D., and Norman J. DeWitt, Ph.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1949.
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