Book 3
15.9
Another method consists in attacking slander, showing how great an evil it is, and this because it alters the nature of judgements,Or, makes extraneous points the subject of decision (Cope), raises false issues (Jebb). and that it does not rely on the real facts of the case.
15.9
Common to both parties is the topic of tokens, as in the Teucer,Of Sophocles. Odysseus reproaches Teucer with being a relative of Priam, whose sister his mother Hesione was; to which Teucer replied that his father Telamon was the enemy of Priam, and that he himself did not denounce the spies.Who had been sent to Troy by the Greeks to spy upon the Trojans. It seems that he was afterwards accused of treachery, the token being the fact that Teucer was a near connection of Priam; to which he replied with another token that his father was an enemy of Priam, and further, when the Greek spies were in Troy, he never betrayed them.
15.10
Another method, suitable for the accuser, is to praise something unimportant at great length, and to condemn something important concisely; or, putting forward several things that are praiseworthy in the opponent, to condemn the one thing that has an important bearing upon the case. Such methodsJebb refers τοιοῦτοι to the accusers, translating τεχνικοί artistic, certainly the commoner meaning. are most artful and unfair; for by their use men endeavor to make what is good in a man injurious to him, by mixing it up with what is bad.
