13. I think It strange that when there is a tax to pay about which all
men will know, they do not wish to do their share but plead poverty, but
those offenses for which the penalty is death, and in which it was for
their interest to escape detection, they say they committed out of good
will to you. You all know that it is least fitting for them to make such,
a defense. For their interests and other men's are entirely different.
They gain most when some disaster has befallen the city and they sell the
corn for a high price. 14. Thus when they see your misfortunes they are
glad, so that they often hear of some before other people, and others
they make up themselves; either the ships in the Pontus have been
destroyed, or have been captured by the Lacedaemonians setting out, or
that the market is closed, or that the truces are about to be made void;
and they have come to such a pitch of enmity (15) that in these times
they plot against you as if they were your enemies. When you chance to be
in the greatest need of corn they heap it up and refuse to sell that we
may not dispute about the price, but may think ourselves lucky if we
manage to buy from them at any price whatever. So although there is peace
we are besieged by these men. 16. Long ago the city came to have such an
opinion of their evil doings and wickedness, that while for all the other
trades you appointed clerks as inspectors, for this traffic alone you
appointed corn inspectors; and on many of these you have inflicted heavy
punishment, although they were citizens, because they were not able to
stop these practices. Ought not, then, those doing this wrong to receive
punishment at your hands when you kill those not able to restrain it?
17. You ought to know that it is impossible to acquit them. For if you
acquit those who confess to making a corner against the merchants you
will seem to plot against the merchants. If they made some other excuse
no one would censure those acquitting them; for in such cases it is at
your discretion to believe either way. But now if you set free those who
confess that they have broken the law, would you not seem to be doing a
strange thing? 18. Remember, gentlemen of the jury, that you have already
condemned many accused of this crime who brought forward witnesses, as
you thought the assertion of the accusers more trustworthy. Would it not
be strange if, judging about the same offenses, you were more desirous to
take punishment from the guiltless? 19. I think, gentlemen of the jury,
that it is plain to all, that cases against these men are of the most
general interest to those in the city, so that they will learn what mind
you have about them; for they will think if you condemn them that they
must be more careful in future, whereas if you acquit them you will have
voted them every opportunity of doing what they wish. 20. It is necessary
to punish them, gentlemen of the jury, not only on account of the crimes
which have been committed, but those that will be. For in that case
(_acquittal_) they will scarcely be endurable. Remember that many in
this business have been tried for their life. And so great are their
profits from it that they prefer to run in danger of their life every day
than to stop getting unlawful gain from you. 21. If they beseech you and
entreat you, you should not justly pity them, but rather have compassion
on the citizens who have been dying with hunger on account of their
knavery, and the merchants against whom they combined. These you will
please and make more zealous if you inflict punishment on the dealers.
But if not, what opinion do you think they will have when they learn that
you let off the retail dealers who themselves confess to plotting against
the merchants?
22. I do not think I need say more. About other criminals you must be
informed by the accuser, but about the knavery of these men you know
everything. If you condemn them you will do what is just and make corn
cheaper; if you acquit them you make it dearer.