8
Besides, gentlemen if I had served, I should not deny it as though I had done something monstrous: I should merely claim, after showing that no citizen had suffered injury by my act, to pass the scrutiny. And I see that you also take this view, and that many of those who served then in the cavalry are on the Council, while many others have been elected generals and brigadiers. You must therefore conclude that my only reason for making this defense is that they have dared thus openly to attack me with a falsehood. Mount the dais, please and bear witness.
9
Testimony Now, as regards the charge itself, I do not see what more there is to say. But it seems to me, gentlemen, that although in other trials one ought to confine one’s defence to the actual points of the accusation, in the case of scrutinies one has a right to render an account of one’s whole life. I request you, therefore, to give me a favorable hearing: I will make my defence as briefly as I can.
10
In the first place, although but little property had been bequeathed to me, owing to the disasters that had befallen both my father and the city, I bestowed two sisters in marriage with a dowry of thirty minae apiece; to my brother I allowed such a portion as made him acknowledge that he had got a larger share of our patrimony than I had; and towards everyone else my behavior has been such that never to this day has a single person shown any grievance against me.
11
So much for the tenor of my private life: with regard to public matters, I hold that the strongest proof I can give of my decorous conduct is the fact that all the younger set who are found to take their diversion in dice or drink or the like dissipations are, as you will observe, at feud with me, and are most prolific in lying tales about me. It is obvious, surely, that if we were at one in our desires they would not regard me with such feelings.
