22
With good reason you may have confidence that I entertain this thought and that I am not now indulging in idle bluff.Demosthenes terminated his second exile by taking poison rather than submit to capture by the soldiers of Antipater, 322 B.C. From this passage it seems that he had been prepared to do so the year before in the same Calauria. I placed my fate in your hands, and I faced the trial in order that I might neither be a traitor to the truth nor place myself beyond the reach of any one of you, but that you might deal with me as you pleased; for I thought that those from whom I had received all my blessings ought to possess the privilege even of erring against me if they chose.
23
Since, however, a just Fortune—thanks be to her—prevailing over the unjust, has bestowed upon you the opportunity of deliberating twice on the same questions, no irremediable decree concerning my case having been passed, save me, men of Athens, and vote a verdict worthy both of your own selves and of me.
24
You will not find me to have done wrong on the score of any of my measures, or a fit person to be deprived of my civic rights or destroyed, but a man who is as much devoted to your democracy as the best patriots—not to say anything invidiousTo claim that he was more loyal would be invidious.—who of all men now living has accomplished most in your behalf and of all men of my time has available the most signal tokens of devotion to you.
