Δημοσθένους ἐπιστολαὶ

Sections

1 – 2 3 – 4 5 – 6 7 – 8 9 – 10 11 – 13 14 – 2 1 – 1 2 – 4 5 – 7 8 – 9 10 – 11 12 – 13 14 – 15 16 – 17 18 – 19 20 – 21 22 – 24 25 – 3 1 – 1 2 – 2 3 – 4 5 – 6 7 – 7 8 – 9 10 – 11 12 – 12 13 – 14 15 – 16 17 – 18 19 – 20 21 – 23 24 – 26 27 – 28 29 – 30 31 – 31 32 – 33 34 – 35 36 – 37 38 – 39 40 – 40 41 – 41 42 – 43 44 – 1 1 – 1 2 – 3 4 – 5 6 – 8 9 – 11 12 – 1 2 – 4 5 – 6 1 – 1 2 – 2

İngilizce Yunanca

13 You, however, though Athenians and partners in a culture which is thought capable of making even stupid people tolerable, in the first place—and of all your actions this is the most heartless—hold the sons in chains as a penalty for offences which certain parties allege against the fatherThe precise accusation is not known; it seems to have been concerned with the administration of the treasury.; in the next place, you claim this action to be equality before the law, just as if you were inspecting equality in the field of weights or measures and not deliberating about men’s ethical and political principles.

14 In testing these, if the actions of Lycurgus seem honest and public-spirited and inspired by loyalty, then it is justice that his sons should not only meet with no harm at your hands, but with all the benefits imaginable; yet if his actions seem quite the opposite, he ought to have been punished while he lived, and these children should not thus incur your anger on the ground of charges someone prefers against the father, because for all men death is an end of responsibility for all their offences.