OF GEORGE PACHYMERES

...and in battles, if he makes the mere possession of weapons a crime, what else would he hesitate to charge? But I am grateful to the gods who protect our city¹ that the man who disparages my deeds delivers his speeches before you—you, whom I would gladly have called as witnesses to my goodwill toward the city, had I been forced to give an account of my public life before some other audience, as often happens under democratic governments for the most rigorous examination of one's character. For it would be strange if I brought in strangers to testify, rather than those on whose behalf I have continuously spent my days struggling—both moving my tongue in the councils and wielding my spear in battles. Indeed, I have the greatest confidence that the truth will not be lost, but will prevail over every rhetorical cleverness; and it will prove, with you as my judges, that the truth alone conquers every scheme of the malicious informer original: "συκοφάντου" (sycophant); in ancient Athens, this referred to a professional accuser who brought cases for money or political gain..

I would have prayed²—how can I put this becomingly?—that it was not I, Pericles, being the sort of man you all know, who was being judged. Instead, I wish that I were someone facing such charges for the first time and alone, stripped of all rhetorical skill, trusting only in a mind that loves the city and in my goodwill toward the people. For in that way, my victory would be above suspicion—let it be said with God's help³—and the informers would have no grounds to claim that this was a contest of the tongue, and not of character and truth.

Aeschines, Against Ctesiphon, § 241: original: "πονηρόν, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι, πονηρόν ὁ συκοφάντης" "A malicious informer, O men of Athens, is a wicked thing." There are endless passages concerning malicious informers. I will make do with one from Menander's Single Sentences: original: "Ὁ συκοφάντης ἐστὶ τοῖς πέλας λύκος" "The sycophant is a wolf to those nearby." Meineke cited a variation: "is a wolf in the city." I found in manuscript 1696: "is an insidious wolf." Perhaps the verse was originally complete: "For the sycophant is an insidious wolf." Scribes often omitted particles like men, de, gar when hunting for general maxims. Similarly, Arsenius had transcribed a sentence of Euripides in an imperfect state: "A good man loves to respect a good man," to which Wagner restored the meter in fragment 1061 by writing: "But a good man..." I myself once proposed for Philostratus's Letters: "The good man..." In fragment 7 of the same author, another scribe omitted "but" (d') after "man." "But it is noble even to be ruled by a noble man."

¹ The manuscript reads polisouchois. This is an error that also appears in old editions of Aeschylus's Seven Against Thebes, lines 257 and 822. The name was illustrated by Blomfield in his notes on the Seven. See also the Thesaurus of the Greek Language.

² Ancient note: This is a "second introduction" a technical term in rhetoric based on the reputation of the person himself.

³ This is a formula used by a modest speaker to ward off divine retribution Nemesis. One may look at the note I added to this passage in Greek Anecdotes, volume 5, page 352; compare also Salmasius on Aristaenetus in Abresch's supplement, page 63; and Krabinger on Synesius's Praise of Baldness, page 180. Procopius of Gaza, in Letter 25: "Our fatherland—let it be said with God's help—has looked upon us with kind eyes." Plato, Letter 4: "For the present, to speak with God's help, things are well." And shortly after: "Since, to speak with God's help, it will be easy." Manuscript 3009 lacks the word "speak." Compare also page 6, line 19 of this volume, and the end of Declamation II.