10. You have heard that they did not buy the corn because they were advised to do so by the officers. And I think if they really are speaking the truth about the corn inspectors they will not be defending themselves, but accusing them. Ought they not to be punished for offenses concerning which the law is expressly written--both those who do not obey and those who direct to do what is contrary to them? 11. But I do not think, gentlemen of the jury, that they will resort to this argument. Perhaps they will say, just as they did before the Boule, that they bought the grain out of good will to the city, that you might buy it as cheaply as possible. I will give you the greatest and most evident proof that they lied. 12. They ought, if they bought the corn for your benefit, to have sold it many days for the same price, until the supply ran out; but in truth they sold it the same day at a drachma dearer as if they were buying it up by the medinnus. I will prove this to you by witnesses. EVIDENCE. 13. I think It strange that when there is a tax to pay about which all men will know, they do not wish to do their share but plead poverty, but those offenses for which the penalty is death, and in which it was for their interest to escape detection, they say they committed out of good will to you. You all know that it is least fitting for them to make such, a defense. For their interests and other men's are entirely different. They gain most when some disaster has befallen the city and they sell the corn for a high price. 14. Thus when they see your misfortunes they are glad, so that they often hear of some before other people, and others they make up themselves; either the ships in the Pontus have been destroyed, or have been captured by the Lacedaemonians setting out, or that the market is closed, or that the truces are about to be made void; and they have come to such a pitch of enmity (15) that in these times they plot against you as if they were your enemies. When you chance to be in the greatest need of corn they heap it up and refuse to sell that we may not dispute about the price, but may think ourselves lucky if we manage to buy from them at any price whatever. So although there is peace we are besieged by these men. 16. Long ago the city came to have such an opinion of their evil doings and wickedness, that while for all the other trades you appointed clerks as inspectors, for this traffic alone you appointed corn inspectors; and on many of these you have inflicted heavy punishment, although they were citizens, because they were not able to stop these practices. Ought not, then, those doing this wrong to receive punishment at your hands when you kill those not able to restrain it?