25. So much for the warriors. As for us, we were given a sign to come in by the emperor, with a motion of the hand and a slight nod of the head, just enough to tell us that we were to move over to his left side. When we had passed through the space between the first and second circle and were quite near him, he again asked us the same questions as before, and being satisfied with our replies, he continued in a louder voice, ‘Well now, let one of you turn about and stand in the midst of these men here (pointing to those who stood about him on either side) and put in my hand the letter from him who has sent you. You can also tell me the message that you have brought to us here.’
Frequently interrupted
26. At this each of us declined the honour of making reply, and each asked the others to do so instead of himself. We held a conference among ourselves and my two companions pressed the duty on me. I was best-equipped, they said, for speaking freely because, unlike themselves, I was a philosopher. They would come to my aid if, by any chance, my arguments were refuted.
So I at once calmed the beating of my heart and stepped into the middle, collected my wits, and gave him the letter. Then, taking the signal to speak, I began my discourse. If the noise which was going on there had not scared me while I was speaking, and if it had not so frequently interrupted me that I forgot my long harangue, perhaps I would have recalled the actual words I had prepared beforehand.
They would have occurred to me in their proper setting and sequence wherever I was developing my argument in periods, or stressing my ideas with a series of clauses rising to some climax. Nobody there noticed that there was subtlety in my plain speaking, but the fact was, that by a careful imitation of Lysias**182 in his use of common everyday speech, I took simple expressions known to the ordinary man, and decked them out with delicate philosophical touches. Anyway, I will recall now the main points of my discourse, as far as my memory serves me.
27. The introduction was mos: emphatic. I spoke clearly enough, but it was artfully done, for to begin with I avoided all reference to their guilt, and started with the Caesar and the acclamation he shared with the emperor. I enumerated other favours, and honours greater still, which had been conferred on them by their true sovereign.
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