Kitap 1
9
‘For my part, if I may speak freely, in case I were offered the choice between inflicting unjust punishment and being put to death myself, you may be very certain that without delay I should choose to die rather than to punish the innocent. But if someone should say: ‘ Phalaris, choose between meeting an unjust death and inflicting just punishment on conspirators, I should choose the latter; for—-once more I call upon you for advice, men of Delphi—is it better to be put to death unjustly, or to pardon conspirators unjustly? Nobody, surely, is such a simpleton as not to prefer to live rather than to pardon his enemies and die. But how many men who made attempts on me and were clearly convicted of it have I not pardoned in spite of everything? So it was with Acanthus, whom you see before you, and Timocrates and his brother Leogoras, for I remembered my old-time friendship with them.
