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Further, the following consideration indicates most strikingly that he did not desire his death: had redress for some old injury been owing to Lycinus, he could have brought Herodes into court on a charge which endangered his life, and have enlisted the help of your laws in making an end of him. By proving him a criminal he could have gained both his own object and your city’s gratitude. This he did not trouble to do: he did not even attempt to institute proceedings against him, in spite of the fact that he was running a more honorable risk by bringing Herodes into court than by engaging me to murder him. Call me witnesses to confirm these facts.The occurence of the rubric Μάρτυρες immediately after the words ὁ κίνδυνος αὐτῷ in the Mss. has led the majority of edd. to suppose that one of the usual formulae introducing witnesses has dropped out. But there are grounds for suspecting a larger lacuna. If the words καίτοι καλλίων γε ἦν ὁ κίνδυνος αὐτῷ form a complete sentence in themselves, they are both obscure and ambiguous. κίνδυνος might refer (a) to κινδύνῳ μεγάλῳ six lines above and bear the meaning the danger into which L. would bring H. by prosecuting him. The gist of the sentence would then be to endanger H.’s life by legal methods was a more creditable course for L. than to murder him. On the other hand, it might refer (b) to the risk (of failing to gain a verdict and so being fined) run by L. himself in prosecuting H. The speaker would then be saying in effect it was more creditable for L. to risk losing a case at law against H. than to risk murdering him. Of the two alternatives (b) is the more probable. But Antiphon is not in the habit of being terse to the point of obscurity; and it is hard to believe that the sentence as he wrote it ended at αὐτῷ. For a suggested supplement see crit. note 3.
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Witnesses
