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And I beg you, fellow citizens, to remember this also, that here the lawgiver is not yet addressing the person of the boy himself, but those who are near him, father, brother, guardian, teachers, and in general those who have control of him. But, as soon as the young man has been registered in the list of citizens, and knows the laws of the state, and is now able to distinguish between right and wrong, the lawgiver no longer addresses another, Timarchus, but now the man himself.
19
And what does he say? If any Athenian, he says, shall have prostituted his person, he shall not be permitted to become one of the nine archons, because, no doubt, that official wears the wreath;The myrtle wreath was worn as sign of the sacred character of the office, and it protected the person from assault.nor to discharge the office of priest, as being not even clean of body; nor shall he act as an advocate for the state, he says, nor shall ever hold any office whatsoever, at home or abroad,whether filled by lot or by election; nor shall he be a herald or an ambassador
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—nor shall he prosecute men who have served as ambassadors, nor shall he be a hired slanderer— nor ever address senate or assembly, not even though he be the most eloquent orator in Athens. And if any one contrary to these prohibitions, the lawgiver has provided for criminal process on the charge of prostitution, and has prescribed the heaviest penalties therefor. Read to the jury this law also, that you may know, gentlemen, in the face of what established laws of yours, so good and so moral, Timarchus has had the effrontery to speak before the people—a man whose character is so notorious.
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Law
