18
The reason was that it was to the prosecution’s advantage, first, that I should be prevented from looking after my interests in person, and so be quite unable to prepare for my trial: and secondly, that I should undergo bodily suffering, and by reason of that bodily suffering find my friends readier to tell lies as witnesses for the prosecution than the truth as witnesses for the defence.Apparently on the assumption that the rats will leave a sinking ship. In addition to which, lifelong disgrace has been brought upon me and mine.
19
Such are the manifold respects in which I have had to submit to a lossFrom the reading ἕλος σωθεὶς of the inferior Mss. the writer of a (late) Argument, which is found prefixed to the speech in A and N, made the curious deduction that the speaker’s name was Ἕλος. of the rights accorded me by your laws and by justice before appearing in court. However, in spite of that disadvantage, I will try to prove my innocence: although it is hard to refute at a moment’s notice false charges so carefully framed, as one cannot prepare oneself against the unexpected.