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[12]
Now I pass over many other considerations, on the strength of which a different kind of a
man and with no other service to his credit would justly demand to obtain acquittal; I
mean the equipping of choruses and triremes and the contributing of money on all
occasions.1 In these duties I shall be found, not only to have been the
first to do my own part, but also to have urged the rest to do theirs. Reviewing these
services one by one, men of Athens, consider
how undeserved is the calamity that has now befallen me.
[13]
Since my present troubles are so abundant I am at a loss to know what I shall bemoan
first. Will it be my advanced age,2 at which, for the first time and contrary to my
deserts, I am compelled to experience the hazards of a perilous exile? Or will it be the
disgrace of having been convicted and ruined without any investigation or proof of guilt?
Or will it be in disappointment of my hopes in place of which I have fallen heir to evils
that rightfully belonged to others,
[14]
since neither
because of my previous political record was I deserving punishment nor had the charges
been proved upon which I was being tried. For I shall never be shown to have been one of
the friends of Harpalus,3 and among the
decrees that were passed concerning him only those proposed by me have afforded the State
a clean record. From all these facts it is clear that I was caught in an unfortunate
conjuncture, not taken in wrongdoing, and that through coming first on the list into court
I unjustly fell foul of the public rage against all those involved in those charges.
[15]
Because, which of the just pleas that have saved those
subsequently tried did not I myself advance? Or what proof did the Council allege against
me? Or what proof could it now allege? There is none; for it is impossible to make facts
out of what never happened. I refrain, however, from enlarging upon these topics, though
there is plenty to write, for the consciousness of innocence has afforded me proof through
experience that, while a feeble help in time of trouble, it is the most excruciating of
all means of enhancing one's suffering.
[16]
So, since, quite
rightly, you have become reconciled with all others involved in these charges, be
reconciled with me also, men of Athens for I
have done no wrong against you, as I call upon the gods and heroes4 to bear
testimony. My witness is the whole extent of time that has gone by, which has a juster
claim upon your credence than the unsupported charge which has now been brought against
me; nor shall I be found to be the worst or the least trustworthy of those who have been
falsely accused.
1 Prosperous citizens of Athens were required from time to time to contribute money for the equipment of triremes, dramatic choruses, and religious deputations to various shrines. These were theλῃτουργίαιin contrast to theὑπηρεσίαιmentioned in Dem. Ex. 52.
2 His age was sixty. Cicero was only a year older when he wrote his essay Cic. On Old Age.
3 Harpalus was an absconding treasurer of Alexander who sought refuge in Attica. Part of his illicit funds disappeared from the Acropolis, where they had been sequestered by the Athenians. Demosthenes was accused and convicted of accepting twenty talents. Few historians believe that he was guilty; some suggest that he may have spent part of the money in the cause of liberty.
4 Demigods or semi-divine ancestors of noble families.
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.
The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text.
