Hearing the words of the Basileos, Methodios stands up and walks down to the center of the hall. He then addresses the assembly.

Basileos,
Caesar,
Fellow Senators,

It seems my adversary has finally agreed to plead guilty about the theft of Scopia.

I quote from memory :

Originally Posted by Nikiphoros Manouelitis

I used subterfuge, I connived, I conned and cheated my former Lord to regain membership in that House. I then used the law of Ilios Korakas to punish Tagaris.
And we all know what that punishment was destined to be : the theft of Scopia and the attempted theft of Alexandria.

See, the rules that were drafted on the creation of House Ilios Korakas were written among men of good faith : Kosmas and I among them… We knew we could trust each other and thus never would our rules be used among us to prejudice one another.

What we had not envisioned was that some untrustworthy fellow would be using those same rules, without regard to their value, for his own advancement.

But those rules were private rules, a gentlemen’s agreement if you prefer, and have no force of law per se. They are only designed to point the way to our House members as to how they should behave and for the day-to-day working of the House.

So here we are faced with a case of theft pure and simple. Though it is not necessary to the case at hand, for theft exists solely in the intent of acquiring what belongs to another, let us dwell on the motives behind such a move.

Here again I quote Manouelitis from memory :

Originally Posted by Nikiphoros Manouelitis

I will not suffer many offenses. The Magnaura must draw the line somewhere, and I wished to draw the line with the Sack of Alexandria.
So Manouelitis was motivated by his will to see justice rendered. But on whose authority ? Did this august body at one time declare him our legate in dealing with whatever was deemed necessary after the sack of Alexandria ? No, it did not…

Manouelitis appointed himself judge, jury and executioner in this and even more, he benefited from it. We might take him at face value on his will to clear his conscience by punishing me for my deeds, if only he hadn’t taken profit from it.

The people have confidence in the law and the judges because they are deemed to be impartial and incorruptible. Manouelitis is nothing near impartial (when was I given a chance to explain myself and plead my case ?) nor incorruptible (as demonstrated by the way he made Scopia his own after rendering judgment…)

Had he truly been what he professes to be, he should have deprived me of Scopia and made a gift of it to the Basileos to do with it as he saw fit, even returning it to him if such was his will… That he kept to himself shows that he had ulterior motives in acting this way.

This is why I call this theft and as far as I know this is also a crime against our laws, which Manouelitis seems so willing to uphold.

Thank you for hearing me, My Lords, fellow Senators…

Bowing to the Basileos.

My liege, I await your decision.