Kitap 40
9
Then Perseus began: "You think, then, that I ought to have opened the door and admitted the armed revellers and presented my throat to the sword, and beset as I am with plots and treachery, I have to listen to the same language that is addressed to thieves and foot-pads. It is not for nothing that those people say that Demetrius is your only son, whilst they call me supposititious and base-born. They speak to some purpose, for if I possessed in your eyes the rank, the affection due to a son, you would not vent your anger on me when I complain of the plot that has been frustrated, but on him who contrived it, nor would you hold my life so cheap as not to be moved by past dangers or by future dangers, should the plotters escape with impunity. If I am to die without uttering a protest, I would be silent except for a prayer to the gods that the villainy which began with me may end with me, and that my deathblow may not strike you. But if, whilst I see the sword drawn against me, I may be permitted to make my voice heard, then, just as Nature herself prompts those who are surrounded by dangers, with no friend near, to appeal for help to men they have never seen, so I beseech you by the sacred name of father-and you have long felt which of us holds that name most sacred-to grant me the same hearing as you would have done had you been awakened by a cry of alarm at night and gone at my call for help, and actually seen Demetrius with his armed comrades in my vestibule. What would have been my cry of alarm at the actual moment of danger, last night, I am today making the subject of my complaint.
