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[12] If this is the treatment which the prosecution deserve, you must put no faith in them. I myself, on the other hand, as you will see by examining my past life, do not form plots or covet what does not belong to me. On the contrary, I have made several substantial payments to the Treasury,1 I have more than once served as Trierarch,2 I have furnished a brilliant chorus,3 I have often advanced money to friends, and I have frequently paid large sums under guarantees given for others; my wealth has come not from litigation, but from hard work;4 and I have been a religious and law-abiding man. If my character is such as this, you must not deem me guilty of anything sinful or dishonorable.
1 The εἰσφορά was an extraordinary property-tax levied on citizens and metics in time of war.
2 One of the most important liturgies or public services which the richer members of the community were obliged to undertake from tine to time. The τριήραρχος served for a year as the commander of a trireme; and although the State furnished rigging etc., and pay for the crew, the trierach was to expend large sums on repairs and to make up shortages in the payment of his men from his own pocket. The average cost of a Trierarchy was 50 minae.
3 i.e. as Choregus he had paid for the training and equipment of a chorus at one of the dramatic or choral festivals so frequent at Athens and throughout Greece in general.
4 The Greek is a deliberate jingle, which cannot be rendered convincingly in English. Perhaps “. . . not from litigation, but from application” might serve.
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