15
In the first place, then, I will prove to you that I did not tell the boy to drink the poison, compel him to drink it, give it to him to drink, or even witness him drinking it. And I am not insisting on these facts in order to incriminate someone else once I have cleared myself; no indeed—unless that someone else be Fortune; and this is not the first time, I imagine, that she has caused a man’s death. Fortune neither I nor any other could prevent from fulfilling her destined part in the life of each of us. . . .Some such phrase as καὶ μοι μάρτυρας τούτων κάλει seems to have been lost. Cf. Antiph. 5.61.
16
Witnesses
16
The facts have been confirmed by evidence as I promised, gentlemen; and you must let that evidence help you to decide which of the two sworn statements made,For the διωμοσία cf.Antiph. 5.11. the prosecution’s or my own, reveals more respect for truth and for the oath by which it was preceded. The prosecution swore that I was responsible for the death of Diodotus as having instigated the act which led to itThat βουλεύσαντα τὸν θάνατον is not to be taken in the sense of wilfully caused his death is clear from Antiph. 6.19.; whereas I swore that I did not cause his death, whether by my own act or by instigation.
