[64]
This
became a matter of general knowledge, as did also the fact that the demesmen
from whom I had exacted repayment of the public moneys swore a conspiracy
against me, and by a sacrilegious theft stole from the temple the shields which
I had dedicated to Athena （for the truth shall be told）, and
chiseled out the decree which the demesmen had passed in my honor. And they have
come to such a pitch of shamelessness that they went about saying that I had
done this for the sake of my defence.1 Yet what man
among you, men of the jury, would judge me so utterly insane as to commit an act
punishable with death in order to secure so mighty a bit of evidence for my
case, and then myself to destroy an inscription which brought me honor?
1 That is, by throwing the odium for the act upon his adversaries.
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by Norman W. DeWitt, Ph.D., and Norman J. DeWitt, Ph.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1949.
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