6
For none of the Greeks is ignorant that during the lifetime of Lycurgus you honored him extraordinarily,In addition to offices of trust Lycurgus several times received the honor of a crown and of statues at the public expense. and, though many charges were brought against him by those who were envious of him, you never found a single charge to be true, and you so trusted him and believed him to be truly democratic beyond all others that you decided many points of justice on the ground that Lycurgus said so, and that sufficed for you. This would certainly not have happened unless it had seemed to you that he was so honest.
7
Today, therefore, all men, upon hearing that his sons are in prison, while pitying the dead man, sympathize with the children as innocent sufferers, and reproach you bitterly after a manner that I, for one, should not dare to write down for, touching the reports which make me vexed at those who utter them, and which I contradict as best I can, trying to come to your defence, I have written these only to the extent of making it clear to you that many people are blaming you, since I believe it to be to your interest to know this, though to quote their words verbatim I judge would be offensive.
