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so in indictments for illegal motions there lies ready to our hand as a rule of justice this tablet, containing the measure proposed and the laws which it transgresses.The tablet is the bulletin-board which had been publicly posted in advance to the trial, containing the indictment, the motion which was attacked, and the laws which were alleged to be violated by the motion. Show that these agree one with another, Ctesiphon, and then take your seat. Why need you call Demosthenes to your support? When you overleap the just defence and call forward a rascal and a rhetorician, you cheat the ears of the jury, you injure the city, you undermine the democracy.
201
How you may avert speeches of that sort, fellow citizens, I will tell you. When Ctesiphon comes forward here and recites to you that introduction which has of course been composed for him,Aeschines assumes that Ctesiphon’s speech has been composed for him by Demosthenes, and that it will be a mere introduction to the real defence, which will follow from the lips of Demosthenes himself, speaking nominally as friendly supporter (συνήγορος) of Ctesiphon. and when he then tries to kill time, and makes no answer to the charge, suggest to him, quietly, that he take the tablet and read the laws and his resolution side by side. If he pretends that he does not hear you, then do you refuse to hear him. For you have not come here to listen to men who dodge an honest defence, but to those who are willing to defend themselves with justice.