Exordia

As for me, I shall not be deterred from saying what I think, although I see that you have been bewitched[*](This meaning of the verb comes from magical practices; see Lexicon under ἀγώγιμον.); for it would be foolish, because you have wrongly yielded to the spell of oratory, for the man who in his turn is going to offer better proposals and much more to your advantage, to give in to fear. And I ask of you to listen patiently, bearing in mind that you would not have formed your present opinions either unless you had listened to the speeches by which you have been persuaded.

Accordingly, just as you would have thought it necessary to test a coin if you were judging what its worth might be, so I ask of you to scrutinize in the light of what we have to say against it the speech that has been made, and if you find it to your advantage, agree with the speaker, and may good fortune attend you; but if, after all, as you examine each detail, it shall seem alien to your interests, to change your plans before falling into error and to adopt the counsels that are right.

Most of all I should desire, men of Athens, that you be convinced by the words I am about to utter, but if after all it should turn out otherwise, I should prefer above all else that by me, at least, they had been spoken.

It is a difficult thing, as it seems, not only to explain to you what ought to be done, but even to discover it by solitary reflection. Anyone would observe this if he believed you would consider, not his speech, but the business upon which you are engaged, and set more value upon being thought an honest man than upon showing himself to be a clever speaker.

I, at any rate,—so help me Heaven—after it occurred to me to reflect upon our present problems, began to hit upon themes, and no end of them, to which you would have listened not without pleasure. For instance, on the theme You are the most just of the Greeks, I observed and now observe many changes to ring, and again, You are born of the noblest ancestors, and many such topics.[*](These were stock topics of funeral speeches: see Dem. 60 and the Introduction to the same) Yet these themes, though affording pleasure so long as they are being aired, after that vanish away;