4
My statement on this is true, as Philinus and Diocles know: but it is not possible for them to testify when they have not taken oathWitnesses must have taken a solemn oath at a preliminary stage before they could come before the Areopagus. upon the charge laid against me; you would then have perceived clearly that it was we who proposed him as judge, and that it was on account of us that he went on the bench. But—if he will have it so—he was our enemy:
5
I grant him that, for it makes no difference. So then I went myself to kill him, as he says, and forced my way into his house. Why, then, did I not kill him, having his person in my power, and having got the upper hand to the extent of taking the woman? Let him explain it to you: but he cannot tell you.
6
Furthermore, everyone of you is aware that he would have been killed more quickly by the stroke of a dagger than by the blow of a fist. Now, you find that not even he accuses us of having come with anything like that in our hands; he only says he was struck by a potsherd. Why, it is evident already from what he has said that there has been no premeditation.
7
For we should not have gone in that way, when it was uncertain whether we should find in his house a potsherd or something to serve for killing him, but should have brought it from home as we set out. In point of fact, we admit that we went to see boys and flute-girls and were in liquor: so how is that premeditation?
