by Demosthenes
[115] ᾤετο γὰρ δεῖν τόν γε τὰ αἴσχρ᾽ ἔργ᾽ ἐργαζόμενον μὴ ἃ ὑφείλετο μόνον ἀποδόντ᾽ ἀπηλλάχθαι （πολλοὶ γὰρ ἂν αὐτῷ ἐδόκουν οὕτω γ᾽ οἱ κλέπται ἔσεσθαι, εἰ μέλλοιεν λαθόντες μὲν ἕξειν, μὴ λαθόντες δ᾽ αὐτὰ μόνον καταθήσειν）, ἀλλὰ ταῦτα μὲν διπλάσια καταθεῖναι, δεθέντα δὲ πρὸς τούτῳ τῷ τιμήματι ἐν αἰσχύνῃ ζῆν ἤδη τὸν ἄλλον βίον. ἀλλ᾽ οὐ Τιμοκράτης, ἀλλ᾽ ὅπως ἁπλᾶ μέν, ἃ δεῖ διπλάσια, καταθήσουσιν παρεσκεύασε, μηδ᾽ ὁτιοῦν δ᾽ ἐπιτίμιον ἔσται πρὸς τούτοις.
[115] Solon’s view was that the doer of infamous deeds ought not to get off with mere repayment of the money stolen; for it seemed to him that there would be no lack of thieves on such terms, — if they had the chance of keeping their booty if undetected, and of simply restoring it if caught. They must pay double; they must be imprisoned as well as fined, and so live in disgrace for the rest of their lives. Not so Timocrates; he made arrangements for a simple, instead of a double, reparation, and for no sort of additional penalty.
[116] καὶ οὐκ ἀπέχρησεν ὑπὲρ τῶν μελλόντων αὐτῷ ταῦτ᾽ ἀδικεῖν, ἀλλὰ καὶ εἴ τις ἄρ᾽ ἠδικηκὼς καὶ κεκολασμένος ἦν, καὶ τοῦτον ἀφῆκεν. καίτοι ἔγωγ᾽ ᾤμην δεῖν τὸν νομοθετοῦντα περὶ τῶν μελλόντων ἔσεσθαι, οἷα δεῖ γίγνεσθαι καὶ ὡς ἕκαστ᾽ ἔχειν, καὶ τὰς τιμωρίας ὁποίας τινὰς ἐφ᾽ ἑκάστοις δεῖ τοῖς ἀδικήμασιν εἶναι, περὶ τούτων νομοθετεῖν: τοῦτο γάρ ἐστι τὸ ἐφ᾽ ἅπασι τοῖς πολίταις κοινοὺς τοὺς νόμους τιθέναι. τὸ δὲ περὶ τῶν γεγονότων πραγμάτων νόμους γράφειν, οὐ νομοθετεῖν ἐστιν, ἀλλὰ τοὺς ἀδικοῦντας τῆς ἐνάτης πρυτανείας;
[116] Nor was he content to be guilty of this iniquity in respect of future offences only; he released even the man who had already committed his crime, and already been punished. I, however, used to suppose that legislators were concerned with the future, making laws to direct how people should behave, how every thing should he managed, and what should be the proper penalties for different transgressions. That is what is meant by making the laws the same for all citizens. To frame statutes for past transactions is not to legislate, but to rescue malefactors.
[117] σῴζειν. σκοπεῖτε δ᾽ ὡς ἀληθῆ λέγω, ἐκ τωνδί. εἰ μὲν γὰρ Εὐκτήμων ἑάλω τὴν τῶν παρανόμων γραφήν, οὐκ ἂν ἔθηκε τοῦτον τὸν νόμον ὁ Τιμοκράτης, οὐδ᾽ ἂν ἐδεῖθ᾽ ἡ πόλις τούτου τοῦ νόμου, ἀλλ᾽ ἐξήρκει ἂν αὐτοῖς ἀπεστερηκόσι τὴν πόλιν τὰ χρήματα τῶν ἄλλων μὴ φροντίζειν. νῦν δ᾽, ἐπειδὴ ἀπέφυγεν, τὸ μὲν ὑμέτερον δόγμα καὶ τὴν τοῦ δικαστηρίου ψῆφον καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους νόμους ἀκύρους οἴεται δεῖν εἶναι, αὑτὸν δὲ καὶ τὸν αὑτοῦ νόμον κύριον.
[117] You may judge that what I am telling you is true by reflecting that, if Euctemon had been convicted on the charge of illegal legislation, Timocrates would never have proposed his law, and the State would never have wanted his law; his friends would have been content to plunder the property of the State, without any concern for other people. But in fact Euctemon was acquitted and therefore Timocrates demands that your decision, the judgement of the court, and every other statute shall be invalidated, and that he and his law shall alone be authoritative.
[118] καίτοι, ὦ Τιμόκρατες, οἱ μὲν ὄντες ἡμῖν κύριοι νόμοι τουτουσὶ ποιοῦσι κυρίους ἁπάντων, καὶ διδόασιν αὐτοῖς ἀκούσασιν, ὁποῖον ἄν τι νομίζωσι τἀδίκημα, τοιαύτῃ περὶ τοῦ ἠδικηκότος χρῆσθαι τῇ ὀργῇ, μέγα μεγάλῃ, μικρὸν μικρᾷ. ὅταν γὰρ ᾖ ‘ὅ τι χρὴ παθεῖν ἢ ἀποτεῖσαι,’ τὸ τιμᾶν ἐπὶ τούτοις γίγνεται.
[118] — And yet, Timocrates, laws which are still authoritative have given supreme authority to the gentlemen of the jury. The laws permit them, after hearing the case, to adjust their condemnation of the offender to their view of the gravity of the offence; light for light, heavy for heavy. Whenever the phrase is, “what penalty, corporal or pecuniary, should be awarded,” the award is at the discretion of the jury.
[119] σὺ τοίνυν τὸ παθεῖν ἀφαιρεῖς τὸν δεσμὸν ἀφιείς: καὶ ταῦτα τίσιν; τοῖς κλέπταις, τοῖς ἱεροσύλοις, τοῖς πατραλοίαις, τοῖς ἀνδροφόνοις, τοῖς ἀστρατεύτοις, τοῖς λιποῦσι τὰς τάξεις: τούτους γὰρ πάντας σῴζεις τῷ νόμῳ. καίτοι ὅστις ἐν δημοκρατίᾳ νομοθετῶν μήθ᾽ ὑπὲρ τῶν ἱερῶν μήθ᾽ ὑπὲρ τοῦ δήμου νομοθετεῖ, ἀλλ᾽ ὑπὲρ ὧν εἶπον ἀρτίως, πῶς οὐ δίκαιός ἐστι τῆς ἐσχάτης τιμωρίας τυχεῖν;
[119] You, then, abolish the corporal penalty by remitting imprisonment. For whom? For thieves and temple-robbers, for parricides, murderers, shirkers, and deserters. All such men you protect by your law. And yet does not a man who, under a free constitution, legislates, not to protect the temples, not to protect the people, but to protect such people as I have named, deserve to suffer the extreme penalty?
[120] οὐ γὰρ δὴ ἐρεῖ γ᾽ ὡς τοὺς τοιούτους οὐ καὶ προσήκει καὶ οἱ νόμοι κελεύουσιν ταῖς μεγίσταις τιμωρίαις ἐνόχους εἶναι, οὐδ᾽ ὡς οὗτοι, ὑπὲρ ὧν εὕρηκε τὸν νόμον, οὐ καὶ κλέπται καὶ ἱερόσυλοί εἰσιν, τὰ μὲν ἱερά, τὰς δεκάτας τῆς θεοῦ καὶ τὰς πεντηκοστὰς τῶν ἄλλων θεῶν, σεσυληκότες καὶ ἀντὶ τοῦ ἀποδοῦναι αὐτοὶ ἔχοντες, τὰ δ᾽ ὅσια, ἃ ἐγίγνετο ὑμέτερα, κεκλοφότες. διαφέρει δὲ τοσοῦτον αὐτῶν ἡ ἱεροσυλία τῶν ἄλλων, ὅτι τὴν ἀρχὴν οὐδ᾽ ἀνήνεγκαν εἰς τὴν ἀκρόπολιν, δέον αὐτούς.
[120] — Certainly he cannot deny that such people ought to be, and that the laws make them, liable to the heaviest punishments. Neither can he deny that the men for whose protection he has invented his law are thieves and temple-robbers; for the have robbed the temples of the ten per cent due to Athena and of the two per cent due to the other gods; they keep the money in their own pockets instead of making restitution, and they have stolen the public share, which belonged to you. Their sacrilege differs from other forms of sacrilege to this extent, — that they never even paid the money into the Acropolis as they ought.
[121] οἶμαι δέ, νὴ τὸν Δία τὸν Ὀλύμπιον, ὦ ἄνδρες δικασταί, οὐκ ἀπὸ ταὐτομάτου τὴν ὕβριν καὶ τὴν ὑπερηφανίαν ἐπελθεῖν Ἀνδροτίωνι, ἀλλ᾽ ὑπὸ τῆς θεοῦ ἐπιπεμφθεῖσαν, ἵν᾽, ὥσπερ οἱ τὰ ἀκρωτήρια τῆς Νίκης περικόψαντες ἀπώλοντ᾽ αὐτοὶ ὑφ᾽ αὑτῶν, οὕτω καὶ οὗτοι αὐτοὶ αὑτοῖς δικαζόμενοι ἀπόλοιντο, καὶ τὰ χρήματα καταθεῖεν �
�εκαπλάσια κατὰ τοὺς νόμους ἢ δεθεῖεν.
[121] As Heaven is my witness, gentlemen of the jury, I believe Androtion became the victim of this arrogant, overbearing temper, not by accident, but by the visitation of the gods, to the end that, as the mutilators of the statue of Victory perished by their own hands, so these men should perish by litigation among themselves, and should either make tenfold restitution, as the laws direct, or be cast into prison.
[122] βούλομαι δ᾽ ὑμῖν, ὃ μεταξὺ λέγων περὶ τούτων ἐνεθυμήθην, εἰπεῖν περὶ οὗ τέθηκε νόμου, παράδοξόν τι, θαυμαστὸν ἡλίκον. οὗτος γάρ, ὦ ἄνδρες δικασταί, τοῖς μὲν τὰ τέλη ὠνουμένοις ἔγραψε τὰς τιμωρίας εἶναι, εἰ μὴ καταβάλοιεν τὰ χρήματα, κατὰ τοὺς νόμους τοὺς προτέρους, ἐν οἷς καὶ ὁ δεσμὸς καὶ ἡ διπλασία γέγραπται, ἀνθρώποις οἳ διὰ τὸ ζημιοῦσθαι ἐπὶ τῇ ὠνῇ ἄκοντες ἔμελλον τὴν πόλιν ἀδικήσειν: τοῖς δ᾽ ὑφαιρουμένοις τὰ τῆς πόλεως καὶ ἱεροσυλοῦσι τὰ τῆς θεοῦ τὸν δεσμὸν ἀφεῖλεν. καίτοι εἰ μὲν ἐλάττω τούτους ἀδικεῖν ἐκείνων νομίσαι φήσεις, ἀνάγκη μαίνεσθαί σ᾽ ὁμολογεῖν, εἰ δὲ μείζω νομίζων, ὥσπερ ἔστιν, ἐκεῖνα τἀδικήματα τοὺς μὲν ἀφίης, τοὺς δὲ μή, οὐκ ἤδη δῆλος εἶ πεπρακὼς τὸ πρᾶγμα τούτοις;
[122] I should like to make an observation about his law which occurred to my mind while I was speaking about these matters, — something quite out of the common, indeed surprisingly so. The defendant, gentlemen of the jury, has proposed that the penalty inflicted upon farmers of taxes, if they did not pay their dues, should be in accordance with the earlier statutes, in which the penalty provided is imprisonment and double restitution for men who, in consequence of losses on their contract, might possibly do the State a wrong unintentionally. On the other hand, he abolishes imprisonment for men who steal the property of the State and rob the temples of the Goddess. — If you tell us, Timocrates, that the latter are guilty of a less serious offence than the former, you must admit that you are out of your senses; and if you think their offence more serious, as indeed it is, and yet release them and refuse to release the others, is it not evident that you have sold your services to these men for a bribe?
[123] ἄξιον τοίνυν καὶ τοῦτ᾽ εἰπεῖν, ὅσον ὑμεῖς διαφέρετ᾽, ὦ ἄνδρες δικασταί, μεγαλοφροσύνῃ τῶν ῥητόρων. ὑμεῖς μέν γε τἀπὶ τῷ πλήθει νενομοθετημένα δεινά, ἐάν τις ἢ διχόθεν μισθοφορῇ ἢ ὀφείλων τῷ δημοσίῳ ἐκκλησιάζῃ ἢ δικάζῃ, ἢ ἄλλο τι ποιῇ ὧν οἱ νόμοι ἀπαγορεύουσιν, οὐ λύετε, καὶ ταῦτ᾽ εἰδότες ὅτι διὰ πενίαν ἂν ποιήσειεν ὁ τούτων τι ποιῶν, οὐδὲ νόμους τοιούτους τίθεσθ᾽ ὅπως ἐξουσία ἔσται ἐξαμαρτεῖν, ἀλλὰ τοὐναντίον ὅπως μή: οὗτοι δ᾽, ὅπως οἱ τὰ αἴσχιστα καὶ τὰ δεινότατα ποιοῦντες δίκην μὴ δώσουσιν.
[123] Another remark worth making, gentlemen of the jury, is that you are far more magnanimous than the politicians. Anyhow you do not repeal the harsh enactments made against the common people, — against those, for instance, who take fees from both parties, or attend the Assembly or sit on a jury while in debt to the treasury, or do anything else forbidden by the laws, — although you know that any man who commits one of these offences may do so because he is poor. You do not enact laws to give liberty of transgression, but rather to take it away. They, on the other hand, make laws to rescue from punishment persons guilty of the most infamous and outrageous misconduct.
[124] εἶτα προπηλακίζουσιν ὑμᾶς ἰδίᾳ τοῖς λόγοις, ὡς αὐτοὶ καλοὶ κἀγαθοί, πονηρῶν καὶ ἀχαρίστων οἰκετῶν τρόπους ἔχοντες. καὶ γὰρ ἐκείνων, ὦ ἄνδρες δικασταί, ὅσοι ἂν ἐλεύθεροι γένωνται, οὐ τῆς ἐλευθερίας χάριν ἔχουσι τοῖς δεσπόταις, ἀλλὰ μισοῦσι μάλιστ᾽ ἀνθρώπων, ὅτι συνίσασιν αὐτοῖς δουλεύσασιν. οὕτω δὴ καὶ οὗτοι οἱ ῥήτορες οὐκ ἀγαπῶσιν ἐκ πενήτων πλούσιοι ἀπὸ τῆς πόλεως γιγνόμενοι, ἀλλὰ καὶ προπηλακίζουσι τὸ πλῆθος, ὅτι σύνοιδεν αὐτῶν ἑκάστῳ τὰ ἐν τῇ πενίᾳ καὶ νεότητι ἐπιτηδεύματα.
[124] And then in private they talk insultingly about you, as though they were superior persons, though they are really behaving like ill-conditioned, ungrateful servants. Servants who have been manumitted, you know, gentlemen of the jury, are never grateful to their masters for their liberation, but hate them more bitterly than they hate anyone else, as sharing in the secret of their former servitude. In the same spirit politicians are not satisfied with having risen from poverty to affluence at the expense of the City, but calumniate the common people, — because the common people know what their style of life was when they were young and poor.
[125] ἀλλὰ νὴ Δί᾽ αἰσχρὸν ἴσως ἦν Ἀνδροτίωνα δεθῆναι ἢ Γλαυκέτην ἢ Μελάνωπον. οὐ μὰ τὸν Δί᾽, ὦ ἄνδρες δικασταί, ἀλλὰ πολὺ αἴσχιον τὴν πόλιν ἀδικουμένην καὶ ὑβριζομένην μὴ λαβεῖν δίκην καὶ ὑπὲρ τῆς θεοῦ καὶ ὑπὲρ αὑτῆς. ἐπεὶ Ἀνδροτίωνί γε πότερ᾽ οὐ πατρῷον τὸ δεδέσθαι; ἀλλ᾽ αὐτοὶ ἴστε πολλὰς πεντετηρίδας ἐν τῷ δεσμωτηρίῳ διατρίψαντα τὸν πατέρ᾽ αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἀποδράντα, ἀλλ᾽ οὐκ ἀφεθέντα.
[125] But it would perhaps, as he may suggest, have been a great shame for Androtion to be sent to prison, or for Glaucetes, or Melanopus. No, indeed, gentlemen of the jury! It will be a far greater shame if an injured and insulted commonwealth shall exact no retribution for the Goddess or for itself. Does not imprisonment run in Androtion’s family? Why, you know yourselves that his father often went to jail for five years at a stretch; and then he was not discharged — he ran away.
[126] ἀλλὰ διὰ τὰ ἐπιτηδεύματα τὰ ἐν τῇ ἡλικίᾳ; ἀλλὰ καὶ διὰ ταῦτα δεδέσθαι αὐτῷ οὐχ ἧττον προσήκει ἢ δι᾽ ἅπερ ὑφείλετο. ἢ ὅτι εἰσῄει εἰς τὴν ἀγορὰν οὐκ ἐξὸν αὐτῷ, καὶ ἐκ ταύτης τοὺς σωφρόνως βεβιωκότας αὐτὸς ἦγεν εἰς τὸ δεσμωτήριον; ἀλλὰ Μελάνωπος δεινὸν νὴ Δί᾽ ἐστὶν εἰ δεθήσεσθαι νῦν ἔμελλεν.
[126] Or has he earned forgiveness by his conduct in youth? Why, he deserves imprisonment for that conduct just as much as for his embezzlements. Do you mean because he frequented the market-place before he was qualified, and with his own hands haled men of respectable life from the market-place to the jail? But there is Melanopus, you say, and what a dreadful thing it would be if Melanopus were committed to prison today!
[127] ἀλλὰ περὶ μὲν τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτοῦ οὐδὲν ἂν φλαῦρον εἴποιμι, οὐδ᾽ εἰ πάνυ πόλλ᾽ ἔχω περὶ κλοπῆς λέγειν, ἀλλ᾽ ἔστω ἐμοὶ ἐκεῖνός γε τοιοῦτος οἷον ἂν Τιμοκράτης αὐτὸν ἐγκωμιάσειεν. ἀλλ᾽ εἰ χρηστ
οῦ πατρὸς ὢν πονηρὸς καὶ κλέπτης ἦν, καὶ προδοσίας γ᾽ ἁλοὺς τρία τάλαντ᾽ ἀπέτεισε, καὶ συνέδρου γενομένου κλοπὴν αὐτοῦ τὸ δικαστήριον κατέγνω καὶ δεκαπλάσιον ἀπέτεισεν, καὶ παρεπρεσβεύσατ᾽ εἰς Αἴγυπτον, καὶ τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς τοὺς ἑαυτοῦ ἠδίκει, οὐ τοσούτῳ μᾶλλον αὐτὸν ἔδει δεδέσθαι, εἰ χρηστοῦ πατρὸς ὢν τοιοῦτος ἦν; οἶμαι γὰρ ἔγωγε, εἴπερ τῷ ὄντι χρηστὸς ἦν Λάχης καὶ φιλόπολις, ὑπ᾽ αὐτοῦ ἂν ἐκείνου δεθῆναι αὐτὸν τοιοῦτόν γ᾽ ὄντα καὶ οὕτως αἰσχροῖς ὀνείδεσιν περιβάλλοντ᾽ ἐκεῖνον. καὶ τοῦτον μὲν δὴ ἐῶμεν, Γλαυκέτην δὲ σκεψώμεθα.
[127] Well, about his father I will say nothing disrespectful; though I could tell you a long story about thieving, — however, so far as I am concerned, let his father be worthy of all the compliments that Timocrates may lavish upon him. But suppose that the son of this virtuous father was himself a rascal and a thief; suppose that he once paid a fine of three talents on conviction for treason; suppose that, after he had sat in the Allied Congress, the court found him guilty of embezzlement, and ordered him to make tenfold restitution; suppose that he played false when he went on embassy to Egypt; suppose that he swindled his own brothers — does he not deserve imprisonment all the more if his father was virtuous, and he is what he is? For my part, I fancy that, if Laches really was virtuous and patriotic, he should himself have sent his degenerate son to jail for implicating him in such infamous scandals. However, let us pass Melanopus by, and fix our gaze upon Glaucetes.