J. E. Sandys, Select Private Orations of Demosthenes

τοῖς ἀδικουμένοις...τῶν ψευδομένων i.e. the legal term of five years would be quite sufficient for injured parties to recover their rights, if their claim were an honest one, whereas those who set up false claims, (a pointed thrust at the present plaintiff,) would be convicted by the fact that they had allowed the statutable period to elapse without taking action. (ἔλεγχον ἔσεσθαι sc. si per tot annos tacuissent. G. H. Schaefer.) τῶν ψευδομένων is sometimes wrongly supposed to imply that, as in Roman law there was no statute of limitations against right of recovery of things stolen (quod subreptum erit, eius rei aeterna auctoritas esto), so in Attic law there was none in case of falsehood, i.e. that even after five years a claim based on a false assertion might be disputed. (Telfy, Corpus iuris Attici § 1587, and Hermann-Thalheim, Rechtsalt. p. 122.) Here τῶν ψευδομένων merely means τῶν συκοφαντούντων.

τὰ πἐντ᾽ ἔτη The wellknown legal term of five years. Or. 38 § 27 τοῦ νόμου πέντε ἐτῶν τὴν προθεσμίαν δεδωκότος.

τὸν χρόνον—ἔλεγχον Lysias Or. 19 § 61 τῷ χρόνῳ ὃν ὑμεῖς σαφέστατον ἔλεγχον τοῦ ἀληθοῦς νομίσατε.

τὸν νόμον ἀντὶ τούτων κ.τ.λ. That is, ‘The contracting parties themselves, and the witnesses to that contract, could not live for ever; and therefore the legislator laid down the law, with its limit of time, designing that, in lieu of living witnesses, the destitute should find therein a deathless witness on the side of right.’