Against Aristogeiton I (85)

If you heard the slanderous language that he used against you, as he paraded the market-place, you would hate him even more than you do, and with justice. For he says there are many men in debt to the treasury, and all of them in the same case as himself. I admit that these unfortunate men are many, though there are but a couple of them; for every state-debtor is one too many,[*] and no others ought to be in debt to the State. But I solemnly swear that their case is not the same as the defendant’s, nor anything like it, but quite the contrary. Look at it in this way.