27
However, it seems to me, Polyeuctus, that there is nothing which you would not use as grounds for an accusation. But from the time when you decided to play a part in public life, for which I admit you are well fitted, you should not have prosecuted private individuals or made them the victims of your impudence. Wait for an orator to commit a crime and then prosecute him, or for a general to do wrong and then impeach him. These are the men who have power to harm the city, all of them who choose to do so, not Euxenippus or any member of this jury.
28
It is not as if I were prescribing one line of conduct for you having followed another in my own public life. I myself never in my life prosecuted any private citizen, and there are some whom before now I have done my best to help. What men, then, have I prosecuted and brought to trial? Aristophon of Hazenia,Of the three orators here mentioned Aristophon was prosecuted by Hyperides in 362 B.C., Diopithes at an unknown date, and Philocrates in 343. See further, notes on Hyp. Fr. 17,Hyp. Fr. 15, and Hyp. Fr. 16. now a most influential person in public life—he was acquitted in this court by two votes only;
