[34]
On the first day, the day of the boy's death, and on the second, when the body was laid out, not even the prosecution themselves thought of accusing me of having played any kind of criminal part in the accident: on the contrary, they avoided neither meeting me nor speaking to me.1 It was only on the third day, the day of the boy's burial, that they yielded to my enemies and set about bringing a charge and proclaiming me to be under the usual disabilities.2 Now who was it who instigated them? And what reason had those others for wanting to do such a thing? I must enlighten you on these further points.
1 The force of συνῆσαν καὶ διελέγοντο can be best conveyed by a negative. The implication is, of course, that had the prosecution believed the speaker guilty, they would have avoided all contact with him for fear of being tainted with the μίασμα which rested on him. Cf. Antiph. 2.1.10.
2 τὸ εἴργεσθαι τῶν νομίμων was the immediate consequence of a πρόρρησις. A suspected murderer had to withdraw from intercourse with his fellows until his innocence had been established or his guilt expiated. Cf.Herodes, Introduction.
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