[23]
For this is the last resource of those convicted on the
facts of the case—to invent charges and excuses which will make you
forget the question before you and give attention to arguments which are alien
to the accusation. But I, men of the jury, if I had seen in the laws which have
just been read a clause to this effect: “these provisions regarding
those who bring malicious charges shall be in force unless Theocrines, a
criminal information having been laid against him, shall see fit to denounce
Thucydides1 or Demosthenes or any other of the men in
public life,” I should have kept quiet; but as it is, I find that no
such excuse is taken into consideration in the laws, nor is it new, so that
those now hearing it for the first time should pay attention to it; on the
contrary it has been used ten thousand times by people on trial.
1 This Thucydides was an orator of the party of Demosthenes.
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