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First,For the meaning of this and the following paragraph see Introduction. whereas an information has been lodged against me as a malefactor, I am being tried for murder: a thing which has never before happened to anyone in this country.A deliberate ambiguity. τῶν ἐν τῇ γῇ ταύτῃ can mean (a) Athenian citizens, (b) persons who happen to be in Attica. Taken in sense (a) the statement is true. Taken in sense (b) it is probably false. Indeed, the prosecution have themselves borne witness to the fact that I am not a malefactor and cannot be charged under the law directed against malefactors, as that law is concerned with thieves and footpads, and they have omitted to prove my claim to either title. Thus, as far as this arrest of mine goes, they have given you every right and justification to acquit me.
10
They object, however, that murder is a malefaction, and a grave one. I agree, a very grave one; so is sacrilege; so is treason; but the laws which apply to each of them differ. In my case the prosecution have first of all caused the trial to be held in the one place from which those charged with murder are always debarred by proclamation, the Agora: and secondly, although it is laid down by law that a murderer shall pay with his life, they have entered a claim for damagesFor an explanation of the phrase τίμησιν ποιεῖν see Introduction pp. 155-156.—not as a kindness to me, but for their own benefit—and by so doing they have grudged the dead man his lawful due. Their motives you will learn in the course of my speech.A promise which is never adequately fulfilled. The only further reference to the subject is in Antiph. 5.79 ad fin.
