[9]
It is worth while to
consider in the light of these facts what sort of an oath he would have sworn,
if an oath had been tendered him. For, when he declared that the dowry was
eighty minae, if one had granted that he should recover that sum on condition of
his swearing that this statement of his was true, what would he have done? Is it
not plain that he would have taken the oath? What can he say to deny that he
would have sworn it under those circumstances, when he demands the right to do
so now? Well then, his own words prove that he would have perjured himself; for
he now claims that he paid, not eighty minae, but a talent. What reason is there
why one should believe that he is forswearing himself in one statement rather
than in the other? Or what opinion should one rightly hold of a man who thus
lightly convicts himself of perjury?
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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