Against Aristogiton (11-15)

Do you then feign ignorance among yourselves and give way to pity when the man concerning whom you are about to vote is Aristogiton, who did not pity his own father when reduced to starvation? Do you still wish to hear us talk about the damages he must pay, when you know quite well that his whole life, as well as his recent conduct, justifies the extreme penalty?

Was it not Aristogiton, Athenians, who made in writing such lying assertions about the priestess of Artemis Brauronia[*]and her relatives, that when you discovered the truth from his accusers, you fined him five talents, a sum equal to the fine set down in an indictment for illegal proposals? Has he not persisted in maligning every one of you he meets, though he has not yet paid up, and in speaking and proposing measures in the Assembly, regardless of all the penalties against wrongdoers which the laws prescribe?

And finally, when an information was lodged against him by Lycurgus,[*]and he was convicted, a debtor to the state without the right to speak in public, when he had been handed over to the Eleven in accordance with the laws, was he not seen[*]walking about in the front of the lawcourts, and used he not to sit on the seat of the Prytanes?

Well then, Athenians, if a man has often been committed to you lawfully for punishment, condemned on information lodged by citizens, if neither the Eleven nor the prison have been able to restrain him, will you want to use him as a counsellor? The law demands that the herald shall first pray, amid dead silence, before he surrenders to you the task of deliberating on public affairs. Will you then allow an impious wretch, who has proved wicked in his dealings with everyone, and in particular his own father, to share in citizenship with you, with your families and kinsmen?

After rejecting all thought of pardon for Demades and Demosthenes, because they were proved to have been taking bribes against you, and punishing them,—quite rightly, though you knew that they had served you during their administration, certainly in many respects if not in everything,—will you acquit this accursed man who has not done you a service ever since he has been in politics but has been the greatest possible menace? Would not everyone reproach you if you accepted such a person as your adviser? For when you are addressed by a man whose wickedness is both notorious and undeniable and a byword among all Athenians, the bystanders will wonder whether you who listen to him have no better advisers or whether you enjoy hearing such people.