Against Lochites (1-5)

Well then, that Lochites struck me and was the aggressor all who were present when the event occurred have testified to you. But this offense should not be regarded as similar to other breaches of the law, nor should the penalty imposed for injury to the person be no greater than that which is inflicted for cheating a man of money; for you know that one’s person is of nearest concern to all men, and that it is for the protection of the person that we have established laws, that we fight for freedom, that we have our hearts set on the democratic form of government, and that all the activities of our lives are directed to this end. And so it is reasonable to expect you to punish with the greatest severity those who do wrong to you in respect to that which you prize most dearly.

You will find that our legislators also have had the greatest concern for our persons. For, in the first place, it is for this one kind of misdemeanor only that they have instituted public and private actions that require no preliminary court-deposit,[*] with the intent that each of us, according to what may happen to be within his power and agreeable to his wish, may be able to exact punishment from those who wrong him. In the next place, in the case of other charges, the culprit may be prosecuted by the injured party only; but where assault and battery is involved, as the public interest is affected, any citizen who so desires may give notice of a public suit to the Thesmothetes[*] and appear before your court.

And our lawgivers regarded the giving of blows as an offense of such gravity that even for abusive language they made a law to the effect that those who used any of the forbidden opprobrious terms should pay a fine of five hundred drachmas. And yet how severe should the penalty be on behalf of those who have actually suffered bodily injury, when you show yourselves so angry for the protection of those who have merely suffered verbal injury?

It would be astonishing if, while you judge to be worthy of death those who were guilty of battery under the oligarchy, you shall allow to go unpunished those who, under the democracy, are guilty of the same practices. And yet the latter would justly meet with a more severe punishment; for they reveal more conspicuously their real baseness. This is what I mean: if anyone has the effrontery to transgress the law now, when it is not permissible, what would he have done, I ask you, when the government in power actually was grateful to such malefactors?

It may be that Lochites will attempt to belittle the importance of the affair, and ridiculing my accusation will say that I suffered no injury from his blows and that I am unduly exaggerating the gravity of what occurred. My reply to this is, that if no assault and battery had been connected with the affair, I should never have come before you; but as it is, it is not because of the mere injury inflicted by his blows that I am seeking satisfaction from him, but for the humiliation and the indignity;