reprehensible; it would have been the murder of the spirits of
an entire people.
Th e scandal thereaft er became even more intense. Smok-
ing Frog made himself king of Uaxactún, without the divine
right to do so. When Great Jaguar Paw died, Smoking Frog put
someone of his own choosing on Tikal’s throne. Th is was Nun
Yax Ayin, known as Curl Snout, who may have been the son of
an as yet unidentifi ed brother of Smoking Frog and Great Jag-
uar Paw. Although Tikal was supposed to be the preeminent
city, it was controlled by Smoking Frog from Uaxactún. Th ese
events would have created anxiety among the people of Tikal
and the lands Tikal controlled because the world order, which
was a divine order, had been twisted and overturned by ambi-tious leaders. It brought forth a new age of Mayan warfare in
which total destruction of a rival society was the object.See also borders and frontiers; children; crime and
punishment; death and burial practices; empires and
dynasties; family; festivals; foreigners and barbar-
ians; gender structures and roles; government orga-
nization; laws and legal codes; literature; migration
and population movements; natural disasters; reli-
gion and cosmology; resistance and dissent; sacred
sites; slaves and slavery; social collapse and aban-
donment; social organization; trade and exchange;
war and conquest; weights and measures.[2.1] I beg you, fellow citizens, to hear me with willing
and friendly mind, remembering how great is my peril,
and how many the charges against which I have to
defend myself; remembering also the arts and devices
of my accuser, and the cruelty of the man who, speaking
to men who are under oath to give equal hearing to both
parties, had the eff rontery to urge you not to listen to
the voice of the defendant and it was not anger that
made him say it; for no man who is lying is angry with
the victim of his calumny, nor do men who are speaking
the truth try to prevent the defendant from obtaining a
hearing; for the prosecution does not fi nd justifi cation
in the minds of the hearers until the defendant has had
opportunity to plead for himself and has proved unable
to refute the charges that have been preferred.
[2.3] But Demosthenes, I think, is not fond of fair
argument, nor is that the sort of preparation he has
made. No, it is your anger that he is determined to call
forth. And he has accused me of receiving bribes—he
who would be the last man to make such suspicion
credible! For the man who seeks to arouse the anger of
his hearers over bribery must himself refrain from such
conduct.
[2.4] But, fellow citizens, as I have listened to
Demosthenes’ accusation, the eff ect upon my own
mind has been this: never have I been so apprehensive
as on this day, nor ever more angry than now, nor so
exceedingly rejoiced. I was frightened, and am still
disturbed, lest some of you form a mistaken judgment
of me, beguiled by those antitheses of his, conceived
in deliberate malice. And I was indignant—fairlybeside myself at the charge, when he accused me of
insolence and drunken violence towards a free woman
of Olynthus. But I was rejoiced when, as he was dwelling
on this charge, you refused to listen to him. Th is I
consider to be the reward that you bestow upon me for a
chaste and temperate life.
[2.5] To you I do, indeed, give praise and high esteem
for putting your faith in the life of those who are on
trial, rather than in the accusations of their enemies;
however, I would not myself shrink from defending
myself against this charge. For if there is any man
among those who are standing outside the bar—and
almost the whole city is in the court—or if there is any
man of you, the jurors, who is convinced that I have
ever perpetrated such an act, not to say towards a free
person, but towards any creature, I hold my life as no
longer worth the living. And if as my defense proceeds
I fail to prove that the accusation is false, and that the
man who dared to utter it is an impious slanderer, then,
even though it be clear that I am innocent of all the
other charges, I declare myself worthy of death....
[2.181] And all the rest of you, toward whom I have
conducted myself without off ence, in fortune a plain
citizen, a decent man like any one of you, and the only
man who in the strife of politics has refused to join in
conspiracy against you, upon you I call to save me. With
all loyalty I have served the city as her ambassador,
alone subjected to the clamor of the slanderers, which
before now many a man conspicuously brave in war has
not had the courage to face; for it is not death that men
dread, but a dishonored end....Aeschines, excerpt from “On the Embassy” (343 b.c.e.)
Greece(cont inued)scandals and corruption: primary source documents 9190895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i919 919 10/10/07 2:30:26 PM