On the other hand, Ariston grandiloquently praises _himself_ as well born, well educated, an honorable soldier and citizen, a man any Athenian would be glad to consider a friend. It is very plain all these personalia delight the jury.[+] When Ariston’s “water has run out” and he concludes his speech, there is a loud murmur of applause running along the benches of the dicasts. [*] These “friends,” however, were never regularly professional advocates; it would have been ruinous to let the jury get the impression that an orator was being directly hired to speak to them. [+] For the depths of personal insult into which Greek litigants could descend there is no better instance than Demosthenes’s (otherwise magnificent) _Oration on the Crown_, wherein he castigates his foe Æschines. 120. The Defendant’s Speech. Demonstrations by the Jury.—It is now Lamachus’s turn. He also has employed a professional speech-writer (_logographos_) of fame, Isæus, to prepare his defense. But almost at the outset he is in difficulties. Very likely he has a bad case to begin with. He makes it worse by a shrill, unpleasant voice and ungainly gestures. Very soon many dicasts are tittering and whispering jibes to their companions. As his harangue proceeds, the presiding archon (who has really very little control of the dicasts) is obliged “to remind the gentlemen of the jury that they have taken solemn oath to hear both sides of the question.” Lamachus fights doggedly on. Having put in all his real arguments, he takes refuge also in blackguarding his opponent. Did Ariston get his wealth honestly? was not his father a rascally grain dealer who starved the people? Yet there is still more impatience among the dicasts. Lamachus now uses his last weapon. Upon the pleader’s stand clamber his five young children clad in black mourning garments. They all weep together, and when not wiping their eyes, hold out their hands like religious suppliants, toward the dicasts.[*] [*] For such an appeal to an Athenian dicastery, see Aristophanes’s _Wasps_. The pertinent passages are quoted in _Readings in Ancient History_, vol. I, p. 238-40. “Ah! Gentlemen of the jury,” whines their father, “if you are moved by the voices of your lambs at home, pity these here. Acquit me for _their_ sakes. Do not find against me and plunge these innocent darlings into want and misery, by impoverishing their father.” Appeals like this have swayed more than one jury during the last year, but the fates are all against Lamachus. From a back bench comes a dreaded shout that is instantly caught up by the front tiers also: “_Katába! Katába!_—Go down! Go Down!”