Thesauros Literature Oratory περὶ τῆς παραπρεσβείας

περὶ τῆς παραπρεσβείας

περὶ τῆς παραπρεσβείας Demosthenes
119 But why this fellow-feeling? Why this concern for Philocrates? Though all his acts on embassy had been consistent with honor and sound policy, if Philocrates admitted, as he did admit, that he had taken bribes, an incorruptible ambassador would have taken infinite pains to avoid and disavow all association with him. Aeschines has not done so. Is not that a plain argument, men of Athens? Does it not proclaim aloud that he has taken bribes, and that from first to last he went wrong for money’s sake,—not through stupidity, or ignorance, or blundering?
120 What witness, he will ask, testifies that I have taken bribes? A brilliant argument! Facts, Aeschines, the most credible of all witnesses. You cannot find fault with facts, and say that they are what they are in deference to somebody, or to oblige somebody. They are what your treachery and perversion have made them, and such they appear on examination. But I have another witness besides the facts. You shall this very moment give evidence against yourself. Come here: stand up and answer me!—Nothing to say? You cannot plead inexperience. You, who take up a new prosecution as easily as you study a new play, and convict your man without witnesses and under a time-limit, you must be an uncommonly clever speaker!Demosthenes alludes to Aeschines’ former profession of actor and also to some recent trial in which Aeschines had been engaged (possibly the action against Timarchus: see Introd. pp. 234-5), when, owing to congestion in the law courts, the time allotted to each speaker was cut down to a minimum. But the matter is obscure.

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