action against him. Other things about him there is no need to mention. Brother he is to the defendant both on the father's and the mother's side, and, to his further misfortune, a twin brother. This person-I pass by other matters-but the poisons and the enchantments, for which you put to death that detestable poisoning woman, the Lemnian Theodoris,1 and her whole race with her; these he got from her servant, who gave the information against her, and by whom this rascal has had children; and now he practises juggling tricks and impostures, and professes to cure epileptic people, being himself an epilept with every kind of baseness. This person,

I say, will petition for him; this poisoner, this pest, whom any one would regard as an object of evil omen rather than wish to address; a man who has pronounced himself worthy of death 2 by bringing such an action.

What then remains, O Athenians? Those aids, I suppose, which are common to all persons on their trial, derived from the feelings of you, their countrymen; for the accused never finds them for himself, but each juror brings them with him from home: I mean mercy, compassion, humanity. But it is not right, before God or man, to give this odious creature the benefit of such feelings. Why is it not? Because, whatever law a man has in his own nature for his fellow-men, the same ought to be applied to him by each of them. What law do you think Aristogiton has for all? what wish does he cherish? Think ye he wishes to see them prosperous, and living in happiness and honour? And what will he do to live? For the misfortunes of others support him. He therefore wishes all people to be involved in litigation and trials and foul charges. This is his husbandry, this his trade. Pray tell me, Athenians, what sort of a person deserves to be called an out-and-out rogue, an accursed wretch, a common enemy, a foe to mankind; for whom one would wish the earth

1 It was Demosthenes himself who prosecuted her, as we learn from Plutarch in his life of the orator. He calls her Theoris, and says she was charged (among other things) with teaching slaves to cheat their masters.

2 Pabst adopts Schäfer's reading, avr. But he is wrong in translating TETίunKev "in Antrag gebracht hat;" for that would require the middle voice. Whichever we read, aur or autê, the assertion of the orator is not to be understood literally, but only to signify that the bringing of the action was a virtual condemnation.

to yield no fruit, nor afford ground for burial? Is it not such a person as this? In my opinion, certainly. What compassion, what mercy has been shown by the defendant to those whom he falsely accused; for all of whom he proposed the penalty of death in these courts, and that too, before the division for the first verdict? And those persons, against whom this miscreant was so bitter and savage, the jurors allotted to try them, O Athenians, in the discharge of their duty preserved; and, while they acquitted the objects of his persecution, they did not give him a fifth part of the votes. But his bitterness and bloodthirstiness and cruelty were found at their post: he saw children and mothers of the accused, in some cases aged women, standing before the tribunal, and had no pity on them. And is there mercy for you, Aristogiton! On what account, and from whom? Or do your children deserve compassion? Far from it. You have forfeited their title to compassion, or rather you have destroyed it wholly. Do not then approach the harbours which you have yourself blocked and filled with stakes; for it is not just.

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If you were to hear the slanders which he uttered against you as he walked round the market-place, you would detest him still more; and justly. He says that many persons are indebted to the treasury, and that they are all in the same predicament with himself. I grant that the unfortunate are many, even though they are but two; for they are decidedly more than they should be, and none of the other citizens ought to be state debtors. But most assuredly I don't think they are in the same predicament with the defendant, nor anything like it, but quite the contrary. Just consider-and don't imagine, O Athenians, that I am addressing you as persons indebted to the treasury; for it is not the fact, and I trust never will be, and I don't believe it. But should any one of you happen to have a friend or acquaintance among that class, I will show you that on his account you ought to detest the defendant. In the first place, because honest men, who have become sureties, and done acts of kindness, and contracted private debts, to which no criminality is attached, and who have fallen into misfortune-such men he puts in the same rank of infamy with himself, which is neither right nor proper. For it is not the same thing, Aristogiton, nor 1 As to πрóßоλo, see the Oration on the Chersonese, Vol. i. p. 111,

anything like it, for you, who moved that three citizens should be put to death without trial, to be indicted and convicted for an illegal motion, and, when sentence of death ought to have followed, to be let off with a fine, and for one who has become security for a friend to be unable to pay an unexpected penalty. It is not the same thing; no ! In the next place, Aristogiton, as far as it depends upon himself, breaks up and destroys that general good feeling which you have naturally for one another; as you may see from what I am about to say. You, men of Athens, exercising, as I have said, your natural kind feelings towards each other, live together in the commonwealth much in the same way that relations dwell together in their private houses. How then do they manage? Where there is a father with grown-up sons, and perhaps their children also, there must necessarily be many different inclinations; for youth and age neither talk nor act in the same manner. However, if the young are discreet, they contrive in all that they do, if possible, to escape observation, or, if they cannot, at all events to have the appearance of desiring it: and the elder people again, if they chance to observe any expenditure, or any drinking or pleasuring that passes the bounds of moderation, see it without appearing to have seen. And by such means everything is done which human nature prompts, and is done well. Just in the same manner you, O Athenians, live in the state in a spirit of relationship and humanity; the bulk of you so looking at the acts of unfortunate men, as (to use the words of the proverb) seeing not to see and hearing not to hear, while they manage in all their proceedings to display a cautious reserve and sense of shame. And by such means that universal concord, which is the origin of all blessings, is established and abides in the commonwealth. This state of things, so happily settled by your natures and habits, Aristogiton disturbs, destroys, and casts to the wind; and, what every other man who has been unfortunate does without noise, he performs almost with bells round his neck. Neither president, nor crier, nor chairman, nor assistant tribe,1 can control him. And now, when any of you, annoyed at the defendant's indecent conduct, says "This fellow to act in such a way,

1 Those who sat on the steps of the platform to keep order. See Vol. ii. Appendix V. p. 341.

when he is a debtor to the treasury too!" "Well! isn't such and such a one a debtor?"-this is the answer you get, every man naming his private enemy: and thus Aristogiton's profligacy draws forth these reproaches, which are cast upon persons who do not resemble him.

It remains then, O Athenians, for those who wish to get rid of this man, now that they have a crime clearly proved according to the laws, to pass sentence of death upon him (that is the best course), or at all events to impose such a pecuniary fine as he will not be able to pay: there is no other way of getting quit of him, you may be assured. Among the rest of mankind, O Athenians, you may observe, that the good and honest, by their own natural impulse, do what is right; those less estimable, who yet fall not within the rank of the very bad, avoid committing faults through fear of you and through their sensibility to reproach and disgrace; the worst sort, the most wicked wretches (to use a common expression), are brought to their senses by misfortune. But this Aristogiton has so far surpassed all mankind in wickedness, that even suffering has not been a warning to him; he has again been caught in the same acts of injustice and encroachment. And he deserves your wrath far more now than he did before, because then he only thought proper to move illegal decrees, whereas now he does everythingaccuses, speaks in public, utters foul and abusive language, proposes sentences of death, brings impeachments, slanders citizens possessed of their franchise, he himself being a debtor to the treasury; nothing can be more atrocious than this. To admonish him would be madness: he that never was frightened nor put down by that tumult with which your whole assembly admonish troublesome persons-he'd be likely to mind the warning of a single individual. The defendant's case is incurable, incurable, men of Athens. As physicians therefore, when they see a cancer or an ulcer or anything of the sort which is incurable, burn it out, or cut it wholly away, so ought you to exterminate this monster, to cast him out of the commonwealth, to destroy him, not waiting till you suffer something which I pray may never befall you either publicly or privately, but taking timely precaution against it. just consider. None of you, I dare say, was ever bitten by a viper or a tarantula, and I hope you never will be; but

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yet, whenever you see creatures of that kind, you kill them directly. In like manner then, O Athenians, when you see a pettifogger, or a man bitter and viper-like in his nature, don't wait till he bites you, but whoever lights upon him, give him his deserts.

Lycurgus called Pallas and the mother of the Gods to witness, and he did well. I invoke your ancestors and their virtues, whose memory not even time has effaced; and no wonder: for they governed the state, not by lending themselves to assist knaves and pettifoggers, not by venting spite upon each other within the walls, but by honouring both orators and private citizens who were virtuous and good, while the wicked and the audacious they detested and punished: the consequence of which was, that all were competitors in honourable deeds.

One thing further, and I have done. You will go forth presently from the court, and all who have stood around, foreigners as well as citizens, will take a view of you, and will look at every man who passes, one by one, and know those who have given votes of acquittal by their countenances. What will you say then, men of Athens, if you go forth as persons who have abandoned the laws? With what faces, with what eyes will you meet the gaze of each beholder? How can you go to the temple of Cybele, if you have any occasion? Could you individually and separately have recourse to the laws, as being in force, if you all collectively quit the court without having affirmed them? Surely not. How on the first day of the month will you ascend to the Acropolis, and implore the Gods to grant prosperity to the state and to each of yourselves, when, Aristogiton and his worthy father being there, 2 you have given a judgment contrary to your oaths and to the facts there registered? Or what will you say, Athenians, what will you say, should any one guess the acquitting jurors and put the question to you? What will you answer? That you like this man? And who will venture to say so? Where is the person who would inherit his baseness, attended with execration and dishonour?

In this were archives of the Athenian laws, to which every citizen had access. See Nóuos, Arch. Dict.

2I. e. their names being there entered as debtors. For, though the father was dead, the record of his debt probably remained.