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ἡμεῖς κ.τ.λ.‘We cancel it! Nothing is less likely.’ ‘The last thing in the world!’ Lit. ‘not more than we qould do anything.’——ἀλλὰ κ.τ.λ. ‘No! in proportion to the sum you may have paid, we will agree to cancel the bond in the presence of a banker; but we will not cancel it as a whole, until we have had a verdict given about the amount in dispute. For with what claims of justice, or holding what as our security, shall we join issue, whether we have to go to an arbitrator or to a court, if we cancel the bond in which we have our sole redress in case our rights are refused?’ All this is a model for Greek composition, being at once simple and idiomatic. The law said that all voluntary compacts were binding (§ 2): consequently, if the bond had been cancelled, Dionysodorus could have pleaded a demurrer to any further action. τί ἔχοντες—τὸ ἰσχυρὸνSee § 2.
Select Private Orations of Demosthenes, Part I. F. A. Paley, M.A., LL.D., and J. E. Sandys, Litt. D. 1898. Cambridge University Press.
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