[2]
But it so
happens, men of the jury, that, although I am of good cheer so far as you are
concerned and my right to citizenship and have good hopes of coming through this
trial well, yet the occasion alarms me and the temper shown by the state when it
has to deal with cases of disfranchisement1; for while many have with
justice been expelled from all the demes, we who have been the victims of
political rivalry are involved in the prejudice felt toward them and have to
combat the charge brought against them, and not merely defend each his own case;
so that our alarm is necessarily great.
1 It would appear that at the time when this speech was delivered there was much agitation in favor of a strict purge of the lists, and that the people had shown much passion in the procedure.
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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