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§§ 26—29. My opponents are really claiming what is public property, that is, your own property, men of the jury, and I shall prove this by your own laws. When the jury were proposing to condemn Arethusius to death, my opponents proposed a pecuniary penalty and promised jointly to pay it. So far from fulfilling their guarantee, they are actually claiming your own property; and the laws declare that the property of persons who guarantee the payment of a sum to the state and fail to do so shall be confiscated; so that, even on this ground alone, the laws would require the slaves in question to be state property. As soon as Arethusius becomes indebted to the treasury, instead of being, as was admitted in former days, the wealthiest of the brothers, he is now made out to be ever so poor, and part of his property is claimed by his mother, part by his brothers, as in the present instance by Nicostratus. I must ask you in conclusion to consider that there will never be any lack of claimants to contest your property, and to defraud the state of her dues, by making pitiful appeals to your compassion. If you disregard all such pleas in the present case, you will do wisely in finding a verdict against Nicostratus. τιμῆσαι See § 18. ἐμοῦ συγχωρῆσαι sc. ἐδέοντο, implored me to acquiesce in my opponents having a pecuniary penalty imposed on them.—ὡμολόγησαν αὐτοὶ συνεκτείσειν, ‘they agreed that they would be jointly responsible for the payment.’ Kennedy.
Select Private Orations of Demosthenes, Part II. J. E. Sandys, Litt. D., and F. A. Paley, M.A., LL.D. 1910. Cambridge University Press.
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