Gentlemen, I have one request. If I prove that my opponents’ mother murdered our father by malice aforethought, after being caught not merely once, but repeatedly, in the act of seeking his life,A natural rhetorical exaggeration. The proof does not in fact occur as promised; but there is no good reason for supposing that the speech is therefore incomplete. In the circumstances outlined in the Introduction such a proof would have been impossible. then first avenge the outrage against your laws, that heritage from the gods and your forefathers which enables you to sentence the guilty even as they did; and secondly avenge the dead man, and in so doing give me, a lonely orphan, your aid.