indictment itself, and to go through my past acts, in order that Aeschines
may hear (though he knows them well) the grounds on which I claim to have
a right both to the gifts which the Council have proposed, and even to far
greater than these. (_To the clerk_.) Now take the indictment and read it.

{54, 55} [The indictment is read.]

{56} These, men of Athens, are the points in the resolution which the
prosecutor assails; and these very points will, I think, afford me my
first means of proving to you that the defence which I am about to offer
is an absolutely fair one. For I will take the points of the indictment in
the very same order as the prosecutor: I will speak of each in succession,
and will knowingly pass over nothing. {57} Any decision upon the statement
that I 'consistently do and say what is best for the People, and am eager
to do whatever good I can', and upon the proposal to vote me thanks for
this, depends, I consider, upon my past political career: for it is by an
investigation of my career that either the truth and the propriety, or
else the falsehood, of these statements which Ctesiphon has made about me
will be discovered. {58} Again, the proposal to crown me, without the
addition of the clause 'when he has submitted to his examination', and the
order to proclaim the award of the crown in the theatre, must, I imagine,
stand or fall with my political career; for the question is whether I
deserve the crown and the proclamation before my fellow countrymen or not.
At the same time I consider myself further bound to point out to you the
laws under which the defendant's proposal could be made. In this honest
and straightforward manner, men of Athens, I have determined to make my
defence; and now I will proceed to speak of my past actions themselves.
{59} And let no one imagine that I am detaching my argument from its
connexion with the indictment, if I break into a discussion of
international transactions. For it is the prosecutor who, by assailing the