Lysias, 24, 9 wrote:δοκεῖ δέ μοι τῆς πενίας τῆς ἐμῆς τὸ μέγεθος ὁ κατήγορος ἂν ἐπιδεῖξαι σαφέστατα μόνος ἀνθρώπων. εἰ γὰρ ἐγὼ κατασταθεὶς χορηγὸς τραγῳδοῖς προκαλεσαίμην¹ αὐτὸν εἰς ἀντίδοσιν, δεκάκις ἂν ἕλοιτο χορηγῆσαι μᾶλλον ἢ ἀντιδοῦναι ἅπαξ. καὶ πῶς οὐ δεινόν ἐστι νῦν μὲν κατηγορεῖν ὡς διὰ πολλὴν εὐπορίαν ἐξ ἴσου δύναμαι συνεῖναι τοῖς πλουσιωτάτοις, εἰ δὲ ὧν ἐγὼ λέγω τύχοι τι γενόμενον, τοιοῦτον εἶναι; καὶ τί² πονηρότερον;
Wes Wood wrote:But it seems to me that the plaintiff alone [1] could prove the greatness of my need most clearly. For if I were appointed as a chorus leader to a tragedy and I challenged him to exchange property ???, he would ten times rather lead a chorus than to exchange property once. And how is it not terrible now, indeed, to accuse me thus, ‘I am able to be with the richest men as an equal because of [my] great ease.’ but if [2] such things that I speak about happened to come to pass, what worse would also happen?
I've understood this χορηγὸς τραγῳδοῖς as a public duty imposed upon the rich to help the polis, "patron", "benefactor". I'm not so comfortable thinking that πενία could have a μέγεθος.

That he's saying that the plaintiff is more than 10 times richer than him is clear.
It seems that the the first section τῆς πενίας τῆς ἐμῆς τὸ μέγεθος ὁ κατήγορος ἂν ἐπιδεῖξαι σαφέστατα μόνος ἀνθρώπων is a subtle way of saying, "In his imagination, and his only ... "
Wes Wood wrote:But it seems to me that the plaintiff alone
Wes Wood wrote:1 If I understand this correctly, this is the point of the phrase μόνος ἀνθρώπων. As luck would have it, I stumbled onto this while looking at superlatives in Smyth the other day.
That sort of ignores the ἀνθρώπων. Perhaps Acts 4:7 Ἀλλ’ ἵνα μὴ ἐπὶ πλεῖον διανεμηθῇ εἰς τὸν λαόν, ἀπειλῇ ἀπειλησόμεθα αὐτοῖς μηκέτι λαλεῖν ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνόματι τούτῳ
μηδενὶ ἀνθρώπων. could provide a parallel. Or Acts 15:17 ὅπως ἂν ἐκζητήσωσιν
οἱ κατάλοιποι τῶν ἀνθρώπων τὸν κύριον, καὶ πάντα τὰ ἔθνη, ἐφ’ οὓς ἐπικέκληται τὸ ὄνομά μου ἐπ’ αὐτούς, λέγει κύριος ὁ ποιῶν ταῦτα πάντα. Also the next verse Acts 17:26 ἐποίησέν τε ἐξ ἑνὸς αἵματος
πᾶν ἔθνος ἀνθρώπων, κατοικεῖν ἐπὶ πᾶν τὸ πρόσωπον τῆς γῆς, ὁρίσας προστεταγμένους καιροὺς καὶ τὰς ὁροθεσίας τῆς κατοικίας αὐτῶν· Perhaps also 1 Corinthians 15:19 Εἰ ἐν τῇ ζωῇ ταύτῃ ἠλπικότες ἐσμὲν ἐν χριστῷ μόνον, ἐλεεινότεροι
πάντων ἀνθρώπων ἐσμέν., if we take πάντων as complete and ἀνθρώπων as doing what it is doing here.
Wes Wood wrote:2 From this point on, I was very uncomfortable with the text. This is what I think it means, but I am intend to tinker with it on my own some more.
Well, let's not reach in for the clothes till the extra rinse cycle is finished.