23
So he makes my situation most perplexing; for if he had produced witnesses, he might claim that they should be believed, but as he has none, he thinks it is I who should suffer so much detriment from that. And I am not surprised—at him; for, to be sure, in his slanderous proceedings he is not going to be as hard up for statements of this sort as he is for witnesses; but you, I trust, will not be in agreement with this man.
24
For you understand that in the plain there are many sacred olives and burnt stumps on my other plots which, had I so desired, it would have been much safer to clear away or cut down or work over, inasmuch as among so many of them the wrongful act was likely to be less evident.
25
But the fact is that I have as great a regard for them as for my native land and my whole property, realizing that it is the loss of both of these that I have at stake. And you yourselves I shall produce as witnesses to that fact;. for you supervise the matter every month, and also send assessors every year, none of whom has ever penalized me for working the ground about the sacred olives.
26
Now surely, when I pay so much regard to those small penalties, I cannot so utterly disregard the perils involved for my person. You find me taking all this care of the many olive-trees upon which I could more freely commit the offence, and I am on my trial to-day for clearing away the sacred olive which it was impossible to dig up unobserved!
