13
Were my enemy alive and prosecuting me, I should not be resting content with a defense; I should have shown what a scoundrel he was himself and what scoundrels are those who, while professedly his champions, seek in fact to enrich themselves at my expense over the charge which I am facing.Implying that the defendant’s property would be confiscated upon his conviction and a percentage given to the prosecution. See Antiphon 5.79, On the Murder of Herodes, for a similar complaint. However, more out of decency than in fairness to myself, I shall refrain. Instead, I entreat you, gentlemen, you who are empowered to decide the most critical of issues; take pity on my misfortune and remedy it; do not join my opponents in their attack; do not allow them to make an end of me without regard to justice or the powers above.
Second Speech for the Prosecution
1
It is an outrage to misfortune that he should use it to cloak his crime, in the hope of concealing his defilement. Neither does he deserve your pityThe ἀτυχία and ἐλεεῖσθαι of course echo the ἐλεήσαντας τὴν ἀτυχίαν μου at the close of the preceding speech for the defense. he did not consult his victim’s wishesIt is important to distinguish between the various meanings of ἀκούσιος Whereas ἑκούσιος is always willing or voluntary, ἀκούσιος can mean one of three things; (a) unwilling, (b) accidental or involuntary, (c) non-voluntary. In (a) I do or suffer something against my will; in (b) I do or suffer something voluntarily, but the consequences are other than I willed them to be; in (c) I do or suffer something unconsciously or in entire ignorance (e.g. I may be hypnotized and unknowingly commit murder, or I may be the unsuspecting victim of sudden death, as here); my will does not enter into the matter at all. in bringing doom upon him: whereas he did consult his own before exposing himself to danger. We proved in our first speech that he is the murderer; we shall now endeavor to show by examination that his defense was unsound.
