Against Theomnestus 1 (21-25)

If not, I beg you, gentlemen, to vote according to justice, reflecting that it is a far greater slur to be told that one has killed one’s father than that one has thrown away one’s shield. I, for one, would rather have cast any number of shields than entertain such thoughts regarding my father.

Is it that I have been justly accused? No, not even yourselves can say so. That the defendant is a better man and of better birth than I? No; not he himself can claim this. That having thrown away my arms I am suing for slander a man who saved his? This is not the story that has been disseminated in the city.

Remember that there you have presented him with a rich and goodly gift[*] in that respect, who would not pity Dionysius for the disaster that overtook him, after he had proved himself a man of the highest valor in times of danger,

who on leaving the court remarked that that was our most calamitous campaign, in which many of us were killed, and those who saved their arms had been condemned for false witness at the suit of those who threw theirs away; and that it had been better for him to be killed on that day than return home to meet with such a fate?