Antidosis (36-40)

for when a man has superior talents whether for speech or for action, one cannot fairly charge it to anything but fortune, but when a man makes good and temperate use of the power which nature has given him, as in my own case, all the world ought in justice to commend his character. However, though I might advance this argument in my behalf, I shall never be found to have had anything to do with speeches for the courts.[*]

You can judge this from my habits of life, from which, indeed, you can get at the truth much better than from the lips of my accusers; for no one is, I think, blind to the fact that all people are wont to spend their time in the places where they elect to gain their livelihood.

And you will observe that those who live upon your contracts and the litigation connected with them are all but domiciled in the courts of law, while no one has ever seen me either at the council-board,[*] or at the preliminaries,[*] or in the courts,[*] or before the arbitrators[*]; on the contrary, I have kept aloof from all these more than any of my fellow-citizens.

Moreover, you will find that these men are able to carry on a profitable business in Athens alone; if they were to sail to any other place they would starve to death; while my resources, which this fellow has exaggerated, have all come to me from abroad.[*] Then again you will find associated with them either men who are themselves in evil case or who want to ruin others, while in my company are those who of all the Hellenes lead the most untroubled lives.

But you have heard also from my accuser that I have received many great presents from Nicocles, the king of the Salaminians.[*] And yet, can any one of you be persuaded that Nicocles made me these presents in order that he might learn how to plead cases in court—he who dispensed justice, like a master, to others in their disputes? So, from what my accuser has himself said, it is easy for you to conclude that I have nothing to do with litigation.