40.13
"Now
in whatever way these charges have been fabricated, let us examine the order
in which they stand. He said that numerous attempts had been made against
his life, and he has brought all the methods employed within the limits of a
single day. I wanted, he says, to kill him in broad daylight after the lustration
when we were engaged in the mimic battle, actually, good heavens! on the
very day of the lustration! Then I wanted to take him, forsooth, by poison,
after inviting him to supper. Then I wanted to go with a band of revellers
armed with hidden swords and kill him with cold steel. You notice what
occasions he has selected for the murder -sports, a banquet, a wine party?
Why, what was the character of the day? A day on which the army was
purified, on which they marched between the two halves of the victim, with
the royal arms of all the kings of Macedonia borne before them, we two
alone in front by the side of you, my father, and the Macedonian phalanx
following. Even though I had previously committed some sin which required
expiation, could I, after being purified and absolved in this solemn rite,
especially whilst gazing upon the victim which lay on either side our path -could I then be revolving in my mind thoughts of murder, poison, swords?
With what other rites could I then have cleansed a mind steeped in uttermost
guilt? But in his blind eagerness to launch accusations and throw suspicion
on everything I did, he has made one thing contradict another. For if I
intended to take you off by poison during the banquet, what could have less
served my purpose than to rouse your anger by an obstinately contested fight
so as to give you just cause for refusing my invitation? After your angry
refusal what should I have done? Was I to make it my business to appease
your wrath so as to have another opportunity, now that I had prepared the
poison, or should I have, so to speak, leaped from that plan to another, and
in the guise of a boon companion killed you with the sword, and all on the
same day? If I had supposed that you kept clear of my supper party for fear
of your life, how could I possibly have failed to suppose that the same fear
would keep you from the drinking bout which followed?
