30
Or the man, he says, who has squandered his patrimony or other inheritance. For he believed that the man who has mismanaged his own household will handle the affairs of the city in like manner; and to the lawgiver it did not seem possible that the same man could be a rascal in private life, and in public life a good and useful citizen; and he believed that the public man who comes to the platform ought to come prepared, not merely in words, but, before all else, in life.
31
And he was of the opinion that the advice of a good and upright man, however simple and even awkward the words in which it is given, is profitable to the hearers; but the words of a shameless man, who has treated his own body with scorn and disgracefully squandered his patrimony—the words of such a man the lawgiver believed could never benefit the hearers, however eloquently they might be spoken.
32
These men, therefore, he debars from the speaker’ s platform, these he forbids to address the people. But if any one, in violation of these prohibitions, not only speaks, but is guilty of blackmail and wanton scurrility, and if the city is no longer able to put up with such a man, Let any citizen who chooses, he says, and is competent thereto,That is, any man who is not debarred, by crimes of his own, from the ordinary privileges of the courts. challenge him to a suit of scrutiny; and then he commands youYou, the people as jurymen. to render decision on the case in a court of justice. This is the law under authority of which I now appear before you.
