4
and in addition to these reasons, since I, men of the jury, have been betrayed (for the truth shall be told you) by persons in whom I trusted because of their enmity to the defendant, men who after hearing the facts and promising to stand by me, have now left me in the lurch,This is commonly believed to be a fling at Demosthenes. and have come to terms with the defendant in this suit of mine; so that I shall have no one even as a fellow-pleader, unless someone from among my own kinsmen shall come to my aid.
5
This man was liable to many criminal informations, and has transgressed all the laws which bear upon these matters; but the most unheard of among his acts we found to be the denunciation which he lodged concerning the merchant ship; so that my father put this at the head of the criminal information which he gave me. First, then, the clerk shall read to you the law regarding those who lodge denunciations and do not carry them through, but compromise in defiance of the laws. For it is with this, I think, that I ought to begin my speech. Then will follow the denunciation itself which the defendant lodged against Micon.
5
(To the clerk.) Read.
5
The Law
6
This law, men of the jury, expressly prescribes for those who undertake either to prefer indictments or lodge denunciations or do any other of the acts specified in the law, the conditions under which each one of these things is to be done. These are, as you have heard from the law itself, that, if a man prosecutes and does not receive the fifth part of the votes,The ἐπωβελία(see note a on Dem. 27.67) was exacted also in criminal suits, and the prosecutor who did not receive the fifth part of the votes was also fined a thousand drachmae. he shall pay a fine of a thousand drachmae, and if he does not prosecute, Theocrines, he shall pay another thousand, to the end that no one may bring forward baseless charges, or with impunity make profit for himself or compromise the interests of the state.
