355

proof, o good sir? For if it is sufficient only to say, and to consider this sufficient for proof of the matter, that you are illustrious and have been most fortunate, thus effortlessly overcoming your enemies. But the daily fabrications and the notoriety of your works towards evil things will not permit you to have such a reputation among the many. But if this is of a melancholic person not only to say, but even to think, it remains, therefore, to proceed to the refutations. If, therefore, he himself is conscious of anything of this sort concerning me, let him prove it openly; but if he says he has heard it from others, let him bring forth the witnesses. But he would not be able to, unless he wished to slander again with unprovable charges. But I will provide the clearest testimony from my deeds. 2.458 For I would not be found to have planned or done anything toward a plot against the emperor’s children, either before the war was started by them, or immediately after it began; but after the imprisonment of the mother and the son and the dispossession of their property and the confiscation of that of their friends and relatives, I did not turn to defend myself, but seeing into what evils a war against one another would end, I was grieved that it was being stirred up and I held those who incited it to be at fault. And I myself, as best I could, was most eager to end it, and I sent an embassy for peace, and I demanded justice, and I did not refuse to pay the penalty, if I should be convicted of perjury. But they cared so little for doing what is just or for taking any forethought to end the war, that, on top of what had happened before, after greatly insulting and reviling me in the assembly, they then mocked and mistreated the ambassadors, and sent them away completely unsuccessful. After this, as if wishing to make it manifest by their very deeds that they take no account of justice, nor did they choose war for the sake of any plausible pretext, but having chosen to kill me by any means, they make their zeal for the empress a pretense for the war, and have sent decrees to all the cities forbidding me all entry to them and designating me a public enemy. And not up to this point did they 2.459 stop their absurdity, but even while I was staying here they ordered me not to go forth from the gate, but sitting at home, to await the vote that would destroy me. What then ought I to have done in response to these things, by truth itself? To cover my head and await the slaughter? But I would not have seemed to use the reasonings of a sane man, dying so ingloriously and dishonorably, but rather, terrified by the sudden change of circumstances, to think servile and unfree thoughts, and to hand myself over to him as he lies in wait, so that he has the power to do evil and to lead me to prison, just like those slaves who, having handed themselves over to him, some inhabit prisons, having first endured confiscations and the experience of many other hardships, while others are led and carried away in the lot of a Carian, having the necessity to do everything commanded by him. And what deaths are these things not worth ten thousand times over? Or when has the sun ever looked upon a greater and more paradoxical absurdity, that the man from the dung-heap, as they say, who has come to be through me and is greatly puffed up, if he even chanced upon a friendly glance, or some word that seemed to have been spoken with good-will, that this man should be able to insult me and employ audacity and malevolence? For all of which reasons, indeed, I chose to save myself and those with me; and what that blessed emperor in reality often compelled me to do, as all know clearly, this I did, having been driven into such a necessity especially by them, 2.460 for the sake of the common salvation of myself and of all. And from that time until now I have never ceased begging them for peace. But I seem to be reaping asphodel; for all things are more tolerable to them than peace. Let us consider, then, which of the two appears to be doing wrong and breaking his oath, he who at the beginning remained true to his oaths, until they were forcefully broken by those making war, and who until now begs for peace and is willing to lay down the war, or he who neither before, nor after, any of the necessary things

355

ἀπόδειξις, ὦ 'γαθέ; εἰ μὲν γὰρ ἀρκεῖ μόνον εἰπεῖν, καὶ τοῦτ' ἀρκεῖν ἡγεῖσθαι πρὸς ἀπόδειξιν τοῦ πράγματος, ὡς λαμπρὸς εἶ καὶ τὰ μέγιστα εὐτύχηκας, οὕτως ἀπόνως τῶν ἐχθρῶν περιγινόμενος. ἀλλ' οὐ συγχωρήσουσι τὰ καθημέραν πλάσματα καὶ τὸ πρὸς τὰ φαῦλα κατάφωρον τῶν ἔργων, τοιαύτην ἔχειν δόξαν παρὰ τοῖς πολλοῖς. εἰ δὲ τοῦτο μὲν μελαγχολῶντος οὐχ ὅτι λέγειν, ἀλλὰ καὶ οἴεσθαι, λοιπὸν τοίνυν χωρεῖν πρὸς τοὺς ἐλέγχους. εἰ μὲν οὖν ἐμοί τι σύνοιδεν αὐτὸς τοιοῦτον, ἐξελεγχέτω φανερῶς· εἰ δ' ἑτέρων φησὶν ἀκηκοέναι, παραγέτω τοὺς μάρτυρας. ἀλλ' οὐκ ἂν ἔχοι, εἰ μὴ συκοφαντεῖν αὖθις ἀνεξέλεγκτα ἐθέλοι. ἐγὼ δὲ τὴν ἀπὸ τῶν ἔργων παρέξομαι ἐναργεστάτην μαρτυρίαν. 2.458 οὔτε γὰρ πρὶν τὸν πόλεμον κινηθῆναι παρ' αὐτῶν, οὔτε βεβουλευμένος, οὔτε πράξας τι πρὸς ἐπιβουλὴν τῶν βασιλέως παίδων ἂν φανείην, οὔτ' εὐθὺς ἠργμένου, ἀλλὰ μετὰ τὴν τῆς μητρὸς καὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ εἱρκτὴν καὶ τὴν ἀποστέρησιν τῶν ὄντων καὶ τὴν δήμευσιν τῶν φίλων καὶ τῶν συγγενῶν, οὐ πρὸς τὸ ἀμύνεσθαι ἐτρεπόμην, ἀλλ' ὁρῶν οἷ κακῶν ὁ πρὸς ἀλλήλους τελευτήσει πόλεμος, ἠχθόμην μὲν κινουμένου καὶ τοὺς παροξύνοντας ἐν αἰτίαις ἦγον. αὐτὸς δὲ, ὡς εἶχον, μάλιστα ἐσπούδαζον καταλύειν, καὶ πρεσβείαν ὑπὲρ τῆς εἰρήνης ἐποιούμην, καὶ τὴν δίκην ἀπῄτουν, καὶ οὐ παρῃτούμην τὸ μὴ διδόναι δίκας, ἂν ἐλέγχωμαι ἐπιορκῶν. αὐτοῖς δὲ τοσοῦτον ἐμέλησε τοῦ τὰ δίκαια ποιεῖν ἢ πρόνοιάν τινα ποιεῖσθαι τοῦ καταλύεσθαι τὸν πόλεμον, ὥστε ἐπὶ τοῖς πρότερον γεγενημένοις ἐμὲ πολλὰ περιυβρίσαντες καὶ λοιδορησάμενοι ἐπ' ἐκκλησίας, ἔπειτα ἐρεσχελήσαντες καὶ τοὺς πρέσβεις κακώσαντες, ὡς μάλιστα ἀπέπεμψαν ἀπράκτους. μετὰ τοῦτο δὲ ὥσπερ ἔργοις αὐτοῖς βουλόμενοι καταφανὲς ποιεῖν, ὅτι τοῦ δικαίου μὲν οὐδένα ποιοῦνται λόγον, οὐδὲ προφάσεώς τινος ἕνεκα εὐπροσώπου εἵλοντο τὸν πόλεμον, ἀλλ' ἐμὲ ἀποκτείνειν ἐκ παντὸς τρόπου ᾑρημένοι πρόσχημα τοῦ πολέμου τὸν ὑπὲρ βασιλίδος ποιοῦνται ζῆλον, θεσπίσματα πεπόμφασι πανταχῇ τῶν πόλεων πᾶσαν εἴσοδον ἐμοὶ πρὸς αὐτὰς ἀπαγορεύοντα καὶ κοινὸν πολέμιον ἀποδεικνύντα. καὶ οὐ μέχρι τούτου ἔ 2.459 στησαν τὴν ἀτοπίαν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐνθάδε διατρίβοντι ἐκέλευον τῆς πύλης μὴ προβαίνειν, ἀλλ' οἴκοι καθήμενον, τὴν ἀναιροῦσαν ψῆφον περιμένειν. τί οὖν με πρὸς ταῦτα ποιεῖν ἐχρῆν, πρὸς αὐτῆς τῆς ἀληθείας; συγκαλυψάμενον περιμένειν τὴν σφαγήν; ἀλλ' οὐκ ἂν ἔδοξα σωφρονοῦντος χρῆσθαι λογισμοῖς, οὕτως ἀκλεῶς καὶ ἀτίμως ἀποθνήσκων, ἀλλὰ καταπλαγέντα πρὸς τὴν ἀθρόαν τῶν πραγμάτων μεταβολὴν, δοῦλα φρονεῖν καὶ ἀνελεύθερα, καὶ παραδιδόναι παρακοιμωμένῳ ἐμαυτὸν, ὥστ' ἐπ' ἐξουσίας ἔχειν κακῶς ποιεῖν καὶ εἰς δεσμωτήρια ἄγειν, ὥσπερ τὰ ἀνδράποδα ἐκεῖνα, οἳ σφᾶς αὐτοὺς ἐκείνῳ παραδεδωκότες, οἱ μὲν οἰκοῦσι δεσμωτήρια, δημεύσεις πρότερον ὑπομείναντες καὶ ἄλλων πεῖραν δυσχερῶν πολλῶν, οἱ δ' ἐν Καρὸς μοίρᾳ ἄγονται καὶ φέρονται, πᾶν τὸ προσταττόμενον ὑπ' ἐκείνου ποιεῖν ἔχοντες ἀνάγκην. καὶ ποίων οὐ θανάτων ἀντάξια μυρίων ταῦτα; ἢ πότε ἂν ὁ ἥλιος ἐπεῖδε μείζονα καὶ παραδοξοτέραν ἀτοπίαν, ὥστε τὸν ἐκ κοπρίας, ὅ φασιν, ἄνθρωπον, ὑπ' ἐμοῦ γεγενημένον καὶ μέγα σεμνυνόμενον, ἂν καὶ βλέμματος ἐτύγχανε προσηνοῦς, ἢ λόγου τινὸς δοκοῦντος εὐμενῶς εἰρῆσθαι, τοῦτον ὑβρίζειν ἔχειν εἰς ἐμὲ καὶ τῇ αὐθαδείᾳ καὶ κακοτροπίᾳ χρῆσθαι; δι' ἃ δὴ πάντα σώζειν ἐμαυτὸν εἱλόμην καὶ τοὺς συνόντας· καὶ ὃ πολλάκις ὁ μακάριος τῷ ὄντι βασιλεὺς ἐκεῖνος ἠνάγκαζε ποιεῖν, ὥσπερ πάντες ἴσασι σαφῶς, τοῦτ' ἔπραττον ὑπ' ἐκείνων μά 2.460 λιστα εἰς τοιαύτην ἀνάγκην συνενηνεγμένος, τῆς κοινῆς ἐμαυτοῦ τε καὶ τῶν ὅλων σωτηρίας ἕνεκα. καὶ ἐξ ἐκείνου ἄχρι νῦν οὐδέποτε ἐπαυσάμην περὶ εἰρήνης δεόμενος αὐτῶν. ἀλλ' ἀνθέρικον δοκῶ θερίζειν· πάντα γὰρ αὐτοῖς μᾶλλον, ἢ ἡ εἰρήνη, ἀνεκτά. σκεψώμεθα δὴ πότερος ἀδικῶν φαίνεται καὶ ἐπιορκῶν, ὁ τήν τε ἀρχὴν τοῖς ὅρκοις ἐπιμείνας, ἄχρις οὗ κατὰ κράτος κατελύθησαν ὑπὸ τῶν πολεμούντων, καὶ μέχρι νῦν δεόμενος περὶ εἰρήνης καὶ τὸν πόλεμον ἐθέλων καταθέσθαι, ἢ ὁ μήτε πρότερον, μήθ' ὕστερον τῶν δεόντων μηδὲν