[109]
What honorable deed will you say that you have done, when
people ask you, or with what shame and impiety will you yourselves say that you
are not chargeable? For up to the time when this woman was indicted and brought
to trial, so that you all learned who she was and what acts of impiety she had
committed, the crimes were her own, and the state was merely guilty of neglect;
and some of you knew nothing of the matter, and others learning of it expressed
their indignation in words but in fact had no means of dealing with her, seeing
that nobody brought her to trial or gave an opportunity of casting a vote
regarding her. But now that you all know the facts and have got her in your own
hands, and have the power to punish her, the sin against the gods becomes your
own, if you fail to do so.
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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