[143]
Thersagoras and Execestus came to
Lesbos and lived there. Well, if
any son or any friend of Philiscus had laid hands on them, they would have been
given up to justice in pursuance of your decree; and assuredly you would have
been guilty of a shameful and a scandalous act if, while ostentatiously setting
up bronze statues of the men who performed a similar feat in your own city, and
loading them with unparalleled honors, you had condemned to outlawry those who
in some other country had exhibited the selfsame spirit of patriotism. I am glad
to say that, in the case of Philiscus, it was not your fate to be ensnared and
to incur that great dishonor; but in the present case, if you will heed my
warning, you will be very careful; for, if there is no limiting clause and if
the phrase “whosoever shall kill Charidemus” is unqualified,
it is quite possible that the outcome will be such as I have described.
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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