Demosthenes, For Phormio, Augustus Taber Murray (Translator), 53

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[53] For my own part, by Zeus and the gods, though I look at the matter from every side, I can see no reason why the jury should be induced by you to give a verdict against the defendant. Why should they? Because you make your charges so soon after the offence? But you make them years and ages later. Ah, but you avoided the trouble of lawsuits all this time? But who does not know of all the cases in which you have been engaged without ceasing, not only prosecuting private suits of no less importance than the present one, but maliciously trumping up public charges, and bringing men to trial? Did you not accuse Timomachus? Did you not accuse Callippus, who is now in Sicily? Or, again, Meno? or Autocles? or Timotheus? or hosts of others?¹

For Phormio. Demosthenes. Augustus Taber Murray (Translator). London. 1936.

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Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.

Current edition Perseus

A Friend Pleading for Phormio (English) (Demosthenes, Vol. IV: Private Orations, Vol 1. Murray, A. T., translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1936 (printing).)

Editions (1)

παραγραφὴ ὑπὲρ Φορμίωνος Perseus (Demosthenes. Orationes, Vol. II, Part 2. Rennie, W., editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1921.) — 53 focus

[53] ἀλλʼ ἔγωγε μὰ τὸν Δία καὶ θεοὺς πανταχῇ σκοπῶν οὐδὲν ὁρῶ, διʼ ὅ τι ἂν σοὶ πεισθέντες τουδὶ καταψηφίσαιντο. τί γάρ; ὅτι πλησίον ὄντων τῶν ἀδικημάτων ἐγκαλεῖς; ἀλλʼ ἔτεσι καὶ χρόνοις ὕστερον αἰτιᾷ. ἀλλʼ ὅτι τοῦτον ἀπράγμων ἦσθα τὸν χρόνον; καὶ τίς οὐκ οἶδεν ὅσα πράγματα πράττων οὐ πέπαυσαι, οὐ μόνον δίκας ἰδίας διώκων οὐκ ἐλάττους ταυτησί, ἀλλὰ δημοσίᾳ συκοφαντῶν καὶ κρίνων τίνας οὔ; οὐχὶ Τιμομάχου κατηγόρεις; οὐχὶ Καλλίππου τοῦ νῦν ὄντος ἐν Σικελίᾳ; οὐ πάλιν Μένωνος; οὐκ Αὐτοκλέους; οὐ Τιμοθέου; οὐκ ἄλλων πολλῶν.

Notes on the current edition

For Phormio

1. Timomachus, Meno, and Autocles (see Dem 50 .) were successive commanders of the Athenian fleet in Thracian waters, where Apollodorus served as trierarch. Callippus is all but certainly to be identified with the trierarch of that name, who at the bidding of Timomachus, and after Apollodorus’s own refusal to do so, had transported the exile Callistratus from Macedonia to Thasos. Timotheus was the well-known Athenian general, against whom Apollodorus brought also a private suit to recover funds ( Dem. 49 ).

Demosthenes For Phormio 53

Augustus Taber Murray (Translator)

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