“Then, if he himself contrived the murder, as he says he did, let him describe the hireling he employed, let him produce the dead girl’s corpse; if, as in the present case, there exists neither murderer nor victim, was such a crime ever heard of before? Again, ‘I loved Melitte,’ he says, ‘and therefore I killed Leucippe.’ How is it then that he accuses of murder Melitte whom he loved, and is now desirous of dying for Leucippe whom he killed? Is it possible that anyone could thus hate the object of his love and love the object of his hatred? Nay, is it not rather far more probable that, if charged with the murder, he would have denied it, in order both to save her whom he loved and not to die for nothing on account of the victim?
“Why then, you may ask, has he brought this accusation against Melitte, if she committed no crime of this sort at all? I will explain this to you too, and I call heaven to witness that you should not think that I am arguing in order to traduce this lady’s character, but simply relating the story as it actually happened. Melitte had fallen in love with the defendant, and the matter of marriage had been mentioned between them before the sea gave up its dead in the person of Thersander. Clitophon was not at all inclined to agree, but resisted the proposal stoutly; and at this moment finding his mistress, whom he believed dead, a slave in the power of Sosthenes and alive, he was still less inclined to have anything to do with Melitte. She, before she found out that Sosthenes’ slave was beloved by him, had taken pity on her and released her from the chains with which Sosthenes had loaded her; she took her into her own house, and generally treated her in the way in which one would treat a free woman who had fallen into misfortune. When she did learn the truth, (Clinias is here mistaken. Melitte sent Leucippe away to gather the herbs before she knew of her relations with Clitophon.) she sent her into the country to perform some service for her, and it is after this that she is said to have disappeared; Melitte will acknowledge that this part of my story is true, as well as the two serving-maids whom she sent with her into the country. This single fact aroused a suspicion in Clitophon’s mind, with the idea that she might have put an end to Leucippe from jealousy; and his suspicion was confirmed by a second event which occurred in the prison, one which aroused bitterness in his heart against both himself and Melitte. One of the prisoners was bewailing his lot, and began to relate how he had fallen in by the way with a man who was — though he did not know it — a murderer; that this fellow had murdered a woman for money: and he mentioned the names; it was Melitte who had hired him to commit the crime, and Leucippe who had been done to death. Whether all this really happened, I do not know; you will be able to find out; you have the prisoner of whom I spoke, and the serving-maids and Sosthenes are all in existence. Sosthenes can tell you whence he obtained Leucippe as a slave; the maids, how she disappeared; and the prisoner, who the hireling was. Until you have ascertained everyone of these particulars, it is not right, it is not consonant with your oaths, to condemn to death this wretched young man, accepting as evidence words spoken under the influence of madness; for he certainly has gone mad from grief.”
10. When Clinias had finished this speech, the majority of those present were convinced by his argument; but Thersander’s counsel, and those of his friends who were present in court with him, shouted for the sentencing of the murderer, who had been brought by God’s providence to become his own accuser. Melitte offered her serving-maids to be questioned, and required Thersander to produce Sosthenes, for perhaps it was he who had murdered Leucippe; her advocates indeed laid great stress on this challenge (One of the most essential institutions of Greek litigation; one side would put forward a salient point to be tested, the refusal by the other side to accept it as a test bringing the ease to an end. πρόκnησις may mean either a challenge or an offer, or something between the two; it is very often indeed (as here) an offer to produce one’s own slaves to be questioned under torture as to the veracity of one’s own evidence, or a challenge to the other party to produce his slaves to be treated in the same way, with the hope of shaking his evidence.) which they put forward. Thersander was much alarmed at it, and privately sent one of his supporters to Sosthenes at his country place, advising him to make himself scarce at once, before the messengers sent for him could reach him; the envoy took horse with all speed, and when he had reached him, explained the danger that he was in; if he stayed where he was, he said, and were there arrested, he would certainly be put to the torture. Sosthenes happened to be at Leucippe’s hut, trying his blandishments upon her; when the messenger called out his name with much shouting and noise, he came out, heard the state of affairs, and was overcome by fear; and thinking that the police were already on his heels, he took horse and rode off at full gallop for Smyrna, while the other returned to Thersander. True it is, it seems, that fear paralyses the memory; at any rate Sosthenes, in his fright for his own skin, utterly forgot all his immediate duties in the momentary shock, and did not remember even to lock the doors of Leucippe’s hut. The whole tribe of slaves is greatly inclined to cowardice in any circumstances where there is the slightest room for fear.
11. While all this was happening, Thersander appeared to answer the challenge thus put forward by Melitte. “We have surely had enough,” said he, “of the raving moonshine put forward by this fellow”, whoever he is. I am really astonished at your callousness; you have caught a murderer in the act — a man’s own accusation of himself is even stronger than a capture in flagrante, and yet you do not call upon the officer to lead him away to death, but sit there listening to this charlatan with his plausible acting and his plausible tears. I rather suspect that he too, being an accomplice in the murder, is afraid for his own skin, and so I see no need for the process of torturing slaves for further evidence in a case so clearly proved as this. Nay more, I fancy that they have committed a second murder; this Sosthenes, whom they call upon me to produce, has now been missing for more than two full days, and there is every ground for suspicion that his disappearance is due to their plotting; he it was that informed me of the adultery. So I think that they have made away with him, and now, certain that I cannot produce the fellow, have most craftily put forward the challenge for him. Now suppose for a moment that he were not dead, and had appeared here in court: whatever could be learned from his presence? If he once bought a certain girl? It is granted at once that he bought her. If Melitte was at one time in possession of her? That too he acknowledges, by my lips. When he has given this evidence, Sosthenes is dismissed τrpós and τrpo are written very nearly alike in MSS., and the change of case would naturally follow the change of the former preposition into the latter. from the case; from this point begins my arraignment of Melitte and Clitophon. What have you done with my slave, whom you took from me? For my slave she was, as Sosthenes had bought her, and if she were still alive and had not been murdered by them, she would still be my slave.”
This last remark was interjected by Thersander with wicked cunning, so that if later on it were detected that Leucippe were still alive, he would be able to keep her in slavery to him. Then he went on “Clitophon has acknowledged that he murdered her, and the verdict is settled on his case: Melitte denies it; well, her serving-maids may be tortured to refute her denial. Supposing it is established that they received the girl from her, but never brought her back again, what is the conclusion? — Why was she ever sent off into the country? To whom? Is not the whole affair perfectly clear, that the conspirators had suborned men to do away with her? About them, naturally enough, no information was given to the serving-maids — the greater the number of those privy to the scheme, the greater danger would it involve; the maids left her near the spot where the robber-band was lying in hiding, and it was so quite possible that they did not even see what happened. Then this fellow uttered some frantic nonsense about some prisoner, who is supposed to have spoken of the murder. Who is this prisoner, who has said nothing to the magistrate, but has related to Clitophon alone all the secrets of the murder, which he certainly would not have done if he had
not recognised him as a participator in it? It is surely time that you ceased to pay any attention to these empty babblings, making this serious business a matter of ridicule; can you think that this fellow would ever have brought this accusation against himself without the direct interposition of Providence?”
12. This was Thersander’s speech, and he followed it by his oath that he knew nothing of what had become of Sosthenes. The president of the judges then delivered his sentence: he was of the royal house, and it was his business to sit in capital charges; but he had, as the law provided, assessors chosen from the elders of the town, whom he had selected as experts in jurisprudence. After consultation with the assessors, his sentence was that I was to be put to death, in accordance with the law which provided that a murderer (A good example of the injustice which may occur in the absence of the excellent rule requiring production of the body for the success of a charge of murder.) admitting his crime was to be condemned, but that as concerning Melitte, there must be a second trial, the result of which would depend upon the evidence given by the serving-maids when put to the question; that Thersander was to make an additional affidavit in writing that he did not know what had become of Sosthenes, and that I, already judged guilty, was to be questioned under torture as to the connivance of Melitte in my crime. I was therefore at once fettered, stripped naked of my clothes, and shing up on the cords, the attendants were some of them bringing the scourges, some the fire and wheel; Clinias was crying aloud and calling upon the gods for help, when Artemis’ bishop was descried approaching, crowned with bay. This is the indication that a sacred embassy to the goddess has arrived, and when such an event occurs, there is bound to be a respite from all judicial punishments until the ambassadors have completed the sacrifice which they have come to perform: I was therefore temporarily released from my chains. Now the head of the sacred embassy was Sostratus, Leucippe’s father; for Artemis had appeared to the Byzantines during their war against the Thracians, and after their consequent victory, they decided that they must send her a sacrifice as a recognition of her aid during the war. Nay more, the goddess had appeared to Sostratus separately by night, and his dream foretold him that he would find his daughter and his brother’s son at Ephesus.
13. To return to Leucippe; about the same time that all this was occurring, she perceived that the doors of her hut had been left open and that Sosthenes was not there: then she looked round to see if he were outside in front of the doors. As he was nowhere to be found, her accustomed courage and hope returned to her: she remembered that more than once she had been brought safely through, against all expectation, and in the matter of her present dangers she dared to hope that Fortune would once again come to her help. Now quite near to the country house was the temple of Artemis: so she ran thither, and there clutched hold with her hands of the shrine within it: the shrine was anciently forbidden to free matrons, but open to men and maidens: if any other woman entered it, death was the penalty of her intrusion, unless she were a slave with a legal complaint against her master: such a one was permitted to come as a suppliant to the goddess, while the magistrates decided the case between her and the master. If the master were found to have committed no offence against her, he used to take the serving-girl back, after taking an oath that he would bear no malice against her on account of her flight: but if sentence were given for the servant, then she stayed there as the goddess’s slave. Sostratus was just taking with him the bishop and coming to the law-court to stop the execution of the sentence at the moment when Leucippe arrived at the temple, and she only missed meeting her father by a few moments.
14. I was thus reprieved from the question, and the court had broken up: I was surrounded by a noisy mob, some expressing their pity, some calling upon the gods to punish me, others questioning me about my story, when Sostratus, who had stopped near me, recognized who I was; for, as I mentioned at the beginning of my story, he had (A mistake. Sostratus had recommended (II. xiv.) that a sacred embassy should be sent to the Tyrian Hercules, but Callisthenes actually conducted it.) once been in Tyre when the feast of Heracles was being celebrated, and had remained there for some days a considerable time before our flight: so that he at once realised from my appearance who I was, and he naturally expected to find us in Ephesus on account of his dream. He therefore came up to me, saying; “Here is Clitophon, but where is Leucippe?” As soon as I recognized him, (See note on the Greek text. If έπιθειαζόντων be the true reading, it might perhaps also mean “calling upon the gods” in amazement at their timely intervention.) bent down my head, while the bystanders related to him the accusations I had brought against myself: at which he cried aloud, and buffeted his face, and then rushed at me and made as if he would almost tear out my eyes; I made no resistance and did not try to prevent him, but rather freely offered my face to his violence. At this Clinias came forward and addressed him, trying to restrain him: “What are you doing, Sir?” he said, “Why do you exhibit so wrong a passion against a man who loves Leucippe even better than you do? He has at any rate offered himself up to be put to death because he thought that the maiden had perished:” and he exhorted him with these and many other like words. He, however, went on lamenting, calling upon Artemis; “Was it for this, great queen, that thou didst bring me hither? Was the interpretation of the vision thou sentest me to be after this fashion? Yes, and I believed thy dream, and trusted to find my daughter here with thee. Now it is a fine gift that thou hast made me; I have found her murderer here in thy city.” When Clinias heard of the dream in which Artemis had appeared, he was overcome with joy; “Be of good cheer, venerable Sir;” he said, “Artemis is no liar: your Leucippe is alive; believe my powers of interpretation. Do you not see how she has delivered Clitophon too, who was actually strung up for execution, from the tortures that were awaiting him?”
15. While he was thus speaking, one of the temple-keepers came running his fastest to the bishop, and cried, in the hearing of all, “A maiden, a foreigner, has taken sanctuary with Artemis.” At these words I was all in a flutter with hope; I opened my eyes and began to live once more. Clinias turned to Sostratus, saying; “You see, aged Sir, that my divinations are coming true;” and at once, speaking to the messenger, “Is she not fair?”— “Never saw I such another,” he replied, “save the goddess alone.” At this I leaped up and shouted: “It must be Leucippe of whom you speak.”
“Certainly,” said he; “that was the name by which she said that she was called, and that her country was Byzantium and her father Sostratus.” Then Clinias clapped his hands, shouting with triumph, while Sostratus fell to the ground for joy, and I leaped up on high, chains and all, and flew off to the temple like a bullet from the gun: my warders pursued me, thinking that I was running away, and called all those whom we met to catch me. But my feet had wings, and it was with the greatest difficulty that at length some of them stopped me in my mad course, and then my guards came up and set about beating me: to which I, now back in my old good spirits, resisted stoutly, and they began dragging me off to the prison.
16. Meanwhile, up came Clinias and Sostratus, the former crying out; “Whither are you dragging this man? He is not guilty of the murder for which he was sentenced:” and Sostratus in his turn corroborated his story and said that he was the father of the girl who had been believed to have been murdered. The bystanders when they heard the whole story, blessed the name of Artemis; and making a ring round me, refused to allow me to be taken off to prison. The warders said that they did not possess the power of letting out a man who had been condemned to death; but presently the bishop, at the request of Sostratus, went bail that he would be responsible for the prisoner and produce him for public trial when the time came. Released thus then from my bonds, I hurried away with all possible speed to the temple, with Sostratus close at my heels, who probably felt the same kind of joy as my own. But, run a man never so swiftly, yet the winged tongue of speech gets to his destination before him: on this occasion again it anticipated us in our
visit to Leucippe, relating the whole story to her, both Sostratus’ adventures and mine; and when she saw us, she rushed forth from the shrine, and while her arms were folded round her father’s neck, she kept her eyes fixed on me. There I stood, my shame for the way I had treated Sostratus restraining me — though all the time I was gazing steadfastly at her face — from falling into her arms; and so we greeted one another only with our eyes.
BOOK VIII
1. WE were just about to sit down and talk of all this that had happened, when Thersander came rushing into the shrine, bringing some of his supporters as witnesses; and, addressing himself to the bishop, shouted out: “I testify before these witnesses that you have no right to release from his bonds and from the death-sentence a man who has been capitally condemned with all the solemnity of the law. And you have here a slave-girl of mine, a harlot who cannot be stopped from running after men; see that you keep her safe for me.” At the words “slave and harlot,” I was grievously affected, and could not bear (Achilles Tatius intended to depict him so, or whether it is a fault in the drawing.) the wounds inflicted by his words; but while he was still speaking, “Triply (Literally, “a slave through three generations.” Reference is probably made here to his being a slave to his lusts.) slave yourself,” I interrupted, “and lecher, you run after harlots, while she is a free woman and a virgin, and well worthy of the goddess whom she serves.” On hearing this, “Do you dare to revile me,” he cried, “gaol-bird and convicted felon?” and as he spoke, he gave me a violent blow on the face and followed it up with another, so that out flowed the streams of blood from my nostrils, as there was all the force of his fury behind the blow. He aimed a third, but taking less care in its direction, he accidentally struck his hand on my mouth, right on the teeth, and wounding his knuckles badly, uttered a cry of pain, and drew back his hand, though the wound made it quite hard to do so; thus my teeth avenged the violence offered to my nose, wounding the fingers that had given the blow, and the striking hand was repaid in its own coin. He could not repress a cry at the wound, but drew back his hand and so desisted from his assault: while I saw the accident that had happened to him, but pretended not to do so; but instead I made a tremendous fuss and outcry at the violent and overbearing treatment meted out to me, filling the temple with my cries.
Complete Works of Achilles Tatius Page 16