Defense Against A Charge Of Taking Bribes: Undesignated

In my opinion, gentlemen,—and let none of you take it ill,—there would be far more justice in your being declared by the Commissioners to be holding my property than in my being prosecuted now for holding Treasury funds. For my attitude towards the State is shown by the fact that, while I am frugal in the private use of my means, I delight in the discharge of my public duties: I take a pride, not in the residue that is left to me, but in the amounts that I have spent on you;

for I regard the latter as my own achievement, whereas my fortune was bequeathed to me by others, and if on account of this I unjustly incur the venal slander of my enemies, those expenses have justly earned my salvation at your hands. There is no good reason, therefore, why others should have interceded with you on my behalf: and indeed, if any of my friends had been involved in a similar suit, I might expect you to show me your gratitude;

and if I were being tried before another court I should look to you as the petitioners in my defence. For it can never be alleged that I have profited at your expense by the tenure of many offices, or that I have been the subject of disgraceful suits, or that I am guilty of any disgraceful act, or that I saw with delight the disasters of the city. In all my dealings, both private and public, I believe that I have shown such a character as a citizen, in a manner so well known to you, that I have no need to justify myself in those respects.

I therefore request you, gentlemen of the jury, to hold the same opinion of me now as you have held hitherto, and not only to remember my public services to the State, but also to bear in mind my private propensities. Consider that the most onerous of public services is to maintain throughout one’s life an orderly and self-respecting behavior, neither overcome by pleasure nor elated by gain, but evincing such a character that one is free from complaint or the thought of a prosecution in the mind of any fellow-citizen.

It is therefore unfair, gentlemen, that you should condemn me in deference to such accusers as these, who have gone this length in contesting the charge of their own impiety, and then, as they could never clear themselves of their own offences, they have the hardihood to accuse others. Nay, Cinesias,[*](A notorious coward; see Introd. p. xviii.) with the character that we know, has served in more campaigns than these men, who now show indignation at the city’s plight! They make no contribution to any scheme for raising the fortunes of the city, but do their utmost to incense you against your benefactors.