[66]
These and all similar acts,
Athenians, are partly excusable in a chorus-master who is carried away by
emulation; but to harass a man with one's hostility, deliberately and on every
occasion, and to boast one's own power as superior to the laws, that, by Heaven!
is cruel and unjust and contrary to your interests. For if each man when he
becomes chorus-master could foresee this result: “If So-and-so is my
enemy—Meidias for example or anyone else equally rich and
unscrupulous—first I shall be robbed of my victory, even if I make a
better show than any of my competitors next I shall be worsted at every point
and exposed to repeated insults:” who is so irrational or such a poor
creature that he would voluntarily consent to spend a single drachma?
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by A. T. Murray, Ph.D., LL.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1939.
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