1
There have been cases, gentlemen of the jury, of persons who, when brought to trial, have appeared to be guilty, but who, on showing forth their ancestors’ virtues and their own benefactions, have obtained your pardon. Since, therefore, you are satisfied with the plea of the defendants, if they are shown to have done some service to the State, it is fair that you should also listen to the accusers, if they show forth a long course of villainy in the accused.
2
Now, to tell how Nicomachus’s father was a public slave,Owned by the State and employed in the police and other public services. and what were the man’s own occupations in his youth, and at what age he was admitted to his clan,A subdivision of the tribe, to which admission was usually obtained in infancy. would be a lengthy affair: but when he became a commissioner for transcribing the laws, it is common knowledge what outrages he committed on the city. For whereas he had been instructed to transcribe the laws of Solon within four months, he usurped the place of Solon as lawgiver, extended his office over six years instead of four months, and day by day, in return for payment, he inserted some laws and erased others.
3
We were brought to such a pass that we had our laws dispensed to us from his hands, and parties to suits produced opposite laws in the courts, both sides asserting that they had obtained them from Nicomachus. When the magistrates imposed summary fines on him, and brought him up in court, he refused to hand over the laws: nay, the city was already involved in the gravest disasters, and still he had not been relieved of his office, nor had submitted to an audit of his proceedings.
