8
What imputation stands against me? That I have been justly accused? No, not even yourselves can say so. That the defendant is a better man? No, not even himself can claim this. That having thrown away my arms I am suing a man who saved his? This is not the story that has been dispersed over the city.
9
Do not, then, pity him for obloquy that he deserves, nor forgive him for outrages and expressions whereby he has broken the laws, especially in regard to a manThe speaker’s father. who has held many generalships and shared many of your perils; who has neither fallen into the hands of the enemy nor been convicted by you at the audit of his service, and who at the age of seventy lost his life under the oligarchy for loyalty to you. There is good cause to feel anger on his account:
10
for what more distressing repute could he have than this,—after being slain by his enemies to bear the reproach of having been destroyed by his children? The memorials of his valor are hanging in your temples, while those of these people’s baseness are seen in the temples of the enemy.
11
He will say that he has made the statement in a fit of anger. But your reflection on this must be that the lawgiver grants no indulgence to anger; he punishes the speaker, unless he proves the truth of his words. I have borne witness twice in regard to this man: for I was not aware that you punished the persons who had seen the deed, but pardoned those who had done the throwing away. I therefore request you to condemn him.
