Antidosis

For I ask this of you: If any of those who have been associated with me have turned out to be good men in their relations to the state, to their friends, and to their own households—I ask you to give them the praise and not to be grateful to me on their account; but if, on the other hand, any of them have turned out to be bad—the kind of men who lay information, hale people into court, and covet the property of others—then to let the penalty be visited on me.

What proposition could be less invidious or more fair than one which claims no credit for those who are honorable, but offers to submit to punishment for any who have become depraved? And these are no idle words; on the contrary, if anyone can name anyone of that kind to you, I yield the floor[*](An offer to yield the floor to an opponent followed by a pause, as here, is common in court pleas. Cf. Plat. Apol. 34a.) for this purpose to my accuser or to anyone else who may desire it—not that there are not persons who would gladly perjure themselves to my harm, but that they would be shown up to you at once, and the injury would fall upon them, not upon me . . .

Well, then, I do not see how I could show more clearly that the charges filed against me are false and that I am not guilty of corrupting my associates. My accuser has mentioned also the friendship which existed between me and Timotheus,[*](Timotheus, the son of Conon and the favorite pupil of Isocrates, was first appointed to an important command in 378 B.C. From that time on for twenty-two years he was one of the prominent generals in Athenian campaigns. In 357 he was associated with Iphicrates, Menestheus, and Chares in command of the Athenian navy. For his alleged misconduct in this command he was tried in Athens (356 B.C. according to Diodorus) and condemned to pay an enormous fine of 100 talents. See § 129 and note. Unable to pay this, he withdrew to Chalcis in Euboea, where he died shortly after. See Grote, History, vol. xi. pp. 27 ff. The eulogy of Timotheus here is a characteristic “digression.” See General lntrod. p. xvi.) and has attempted to calumniate us both, nor did any sense of shame restrain him from saying slanderous and utterly infamous things about a man who is dead, to whom Athens is indebted for many services.