But now to “the irrefutable argument,” as Demosthenes calls it, I wish to reply briefly in advance. For he will say, “I am in charge of the construction of walls; I admit it; but I have made a present of a hundred minas to the state, and I have carried out the work on a larger scale than was prescribed; what then is it that you want to audit? unless a man's patriotism is to be audited!” Now to this pretext hear my answer, true to the facts and beneficial to you.
In this city, so ancient and so great, no man is free from the audit who has held any public trust.
