Against Callimachus (36-40)

And he will accuse also those who took part in the revolution, in the hope that in this way especially he will arouse you to wrath; for perhaps he has heard it said that whenever you fail to apprehend the guilty, you punish any who cross your path. But I for my part do not think that you are so disposed, and I believe that it is easy to controvert the pleas just suggested.

As for his lamentations, it is fitting that you give aid, not to those who try to show that they are the most miserable of men, but to those whose statements concerning the facts to which they have sworn in their affidavits are manifestly the more just. And in regard to the penalty assessed against the loser, if I were responsible for this action, you might reasonably sympathize with him as about to be penalized; but the truth is, it is he who brings in a calumnious accusation and therefore you cannot in justice accept anything he says.

In the second place, you should consider this point—that all the exiles who returned to the city from the Peiraeus would be able to use the very same arguments as he; but no one except Callimachus has had the audacity to introduce such a suit. And yet you ought to hate such persons and regard them as bad citizens who, although they have suffered the same misfortunes as the part of the people, think fit to exact exceptional punishments.

Furthermore, it is possible for him even now, before he has made trial of your decision, to drop the suit and to be entirely rid of all his troubles. And yet is it not stupid of him to seek to win your pity while in this jeopardy, for which he himself is responsible, and in which he has involved himself, a jeopardy which even now it is possible for him to avoid?

And if he does mention events which occurred under the oligarchy, demand of him that, instead of accusing persons whom no one will defend,[*] he prove that it was I who took his money; for this is the issue upon which you must cast your votes. And demand that he, instead of showing that he has suffered cruel wrongs, prove that it is I who have committed them, I, from whom he seeks to recover what he has lost;