196
But it is not so today; the very opposite is done. For your worthy generals, and some of those who have received maintenance in the Prytaneum, beg men off who have been indicted for illegal motions.The meaning is that these influential men come into court and use their influence to secure the acquittal of personal friends of theirs. But you ought to regard them as ungrateful. For if any man who has been honored in a democracy, a government which owes its safety to the gods and to the laws, dares to aid men who make illegal motions, he is undermining the government from which he received his honors.
197
But I will tell you what plea is in order from the honest advocate. When an indictment for an illegal motion is tried in court, the day is divided into three parts. The first water is poured inInto the clepsydra, by which the time allowed to each side was measured. Cp. Aeschin. 2.126 and note. for the accuser, the laws, and the democracy the second water, for the defendant and those who speak on the question at issue; but when the question of illegality has been decided by the first ballot,The jurors balloted first on the question whether the motion was illegal as charged. If they sustained the prosecution, both sides then argued the question of the nature and extent of the penalty, after which the jurors cast a final ballot, fixing the penalty. then the third water is poured in for the question of the penalty and the extent of your anger.