Demosthenes On the False Embassy 332

[332] Some one came up to me just now in front of the court, and told me a very odd thing. Aeschines, he said, had prepared himself to denounce the general Chares, ¹ hoping to cajole you by his eloquent treatment of that topic. I will not lay too much stress on the observation that, whenever Chares has been brought to trial, he has been found to have acted faithfully and loyally, so far as in him lay, in your interests, though he has often failed of success by the fault of the people who do mischief for money. I will go so far as to grant for argument’s sake that every word Aeschines will utter against him is true. But even on that assumption it is absolutely ridiculous that a man in Chares’ position should be denounced by a man like Aeschines.