[4,35] Ἀλλ´ ἵνα ταῦτα πάντ´ ἀφῶ καὶ ὁμόσε χωρήσω τοῖς σοῖς λόγοις, εἴ σε παρακαταθήκην παππῴαν ἀπεστέρουν καὶ παρὰ πάντα τὰ ἐν ἀνθρώποις δίκαια τὴν σὴν βασιλείαν κατεῖχον, ἐχρῆν σε παραγενόμενον ἐπὶ τοὺς δεδωκότας μοι τὴν ἐξουσίαν ἀγανακτεῖν καὶ κατηγορεῖν ἐμοῦ τε, ὅτι τὰ μὴ προσήκοντα κατέχω, καὶ τῶν δεδωκότων, ὅτι τἀλλότρια ἐχαρίσαντό μοι· ῥᾳδίως γὰρ ἂν ἔπεισας αὐτούς, εἴ τι δίκαιον εἶχες λέγειν. εἰ δὲ τούτῳ μὲν οὐκ ἐπίστευες τῷ λόγῳ, οὐ δικαίως δ´ ἄρχεσθαι τὴν πόλιν ἐνόμιζες ὑπ´ ἐμοῦ καὶ σεαυτὸν ἐπιτηδειότερον εἶναι τὴν ἐπιμέλειαν τῶν κοινῶν παραλαβεῖν, ἐκεῖνα ποιεῖν σοι προσῆκεν· ἐξέτασιν τῶν ἐμῶν ποιησάμενον ἁμαρτημάτων καὶ τὰς σαυτοῦ πράξεις ἐξαριθμησάμενον καλεῖν με εἰς διαδικασίαν· ὧν οὐδέτερον ἐποίησας, ἀλλὰ τοσούτοις χρόνοις ὕστερον ὥσπερ ἐκ μακρᾶς ἀνανήψας μέθης νῦν ἥκεις μου κατηγορῶν καὶ οὐδὲ νῦν, ὅπου δεῖ. οὐ γὰρ ἐνθάδε σοι ταῦτα προσήκει λέγειν· καὶ μηδὲν ἀχθεσθῆτέ μοι ταῦτα λέγοντι, ὦ βουλή· οὐ γὰρ ὑμῶν ἀφαιρούμενος τὴν διάγνωσιν, ἀλλὰ τὴν τούτου συκοφαντίαν ἐπιδείξασθαι βουλόμενος ταῦτα λέγω· προειπόντα δέ ς´ ἔδει μοι τὸν δῆμον εἰς ἐκκλησίαν συναγαγεῖν κἀκεῖ μου κατηγορεῖν. πλὴν ἐπεὶ σὺ τοῦτο πέφευγας, ἐγὼ περὶ σοῦ ποιήσω καὶ συγκαλέσας τὸν δῆμον παρέξομαί σοι δικαστὴν ὧν ἄν μου κατηγορήσῃς, καὶ ἀποδώσω πάλιν αὐτῷ διαγνῶναι, πότερος ἡμῶν ἐπιτηδειότερός ἐστιν ἔχειν τὴν ἀρχήν· καὶ ὅ τι ἂν ἅπαντες οὗτοι γνῶσι πράττειν με δεῖν, ποιήσω. καὶ πρὸς μὲν σὲ ταῦθ´ ἱκανά· ἐν ἴσῳ γάρ ἐστι τό τε πολλὰ δίκαια πρὸς τοὺς ἀγνώμονας ἀντιδίκους λέγειν καὶ τὸ ὀλίγα· τὸ γὰρ πεῖσον αὐτοὺς εἶναι χρηστοὺς οὐ πεφύκασι φέρειν οἱ λόγοι.

[4,35] "But — to pass over all these matters and to come to grips with your charges — if I had been depriving you of a deposit that had been left in my hands by your grandfather in trust for you and, (p387) contrary to all the established rules of justice recognized by mankind, had been retaining the kingship which was yours, you ought to have gone to those who granted the power to me and to have vented your indignation and reproaches, both against me, for continuing to hold what did not belong to me, and against them, for having conferred on me what belonged to others; for you would easily have convinced them if you had been able to urge any just claim. If, however, you had no confidence in this argument and yet thought that I had no right to rule the state and that you were a more suitable person to be entrusted with its oversight, you ought to have done as follows — to have made an investigation of my mistakes and enumerated your own services and then to have challenged me to a trial for the determination of our respective merits. Neither of these things did you do; but, after all this time, as if recovered from a long fit of drunkenness, you now come to accuse me, and even now not where you should have come. For it is not here that you should present these charges — do not take any offence at this statement of mine, senators, for it is not with a view of taking the decision away from you that I say this, but from the desire to expose this man's calumnies — but you ought to have told me beforehand to call an assembly of the people and there to have accused me. However, since you have avoided doing so, I will do it for you, and having called the people together, I will appoint them judges of any crimes of which you may accuse me, and will again leave it to them to decide which of us two is the more suitable to hold the sovereignty; and whatever they shall unanimously decide I ought to do, I will do. (p389) As for you, this is a sufficient answer, since it is all the same whether one urges many or few just claims against unreasonable adversaries; for mere words naturally cannot bring any argument which will persuade them to be honest.