43
On my part, men of the jury, I was led to reflect what gain there is in a life molded to serve one’s ends.His own desire to live simply and naturally had caused him to be imposed upon, and to be despised as one lacking in spirit. The passage is variously interpreted, and the text is uncertain. The MSS. have καταπεπλῆχθαι, which yields no satisfactory sense, unless with Wolf we insert the negative μή. The meaning in that case would be that a life of ruthless self-assertion is a great gain. For it seemed to me that I was suffering this treatment because I was despised as one who lived a simple and natural life, and that I was paying a heavy penalty in having to submit to this.
43
However, to prove that I was compelled to give a counter-challenge contrary to what I thought was right, that I offered to give up the slave, and that I am speaking the truth in this, read the challenge.
43
The Challenge
44
Since he refused this, and refused the challenge which he himself gave at the first, I wonder what in the world he will have to say to you. But that you may know who it is at whose hands he claims to have suffered these indignities—behold him!Here the speaker effectively brings before the jury the slave, Antigenes—a feeble, old man. This is the man who dispossessed Pantaenetus; this is the man who was stronger than the friends of Pantaenetus, and stronger than the laws. For I myself was not in Athens; even he does not make that charge.
