6. As I was thus making moan, in came Clinias, and I related the whole story to him, telling him at the same time that I was resolved on self-destruction. He did his best to comfort me: “Who can know,” he said, “but that she will come to life again? Has she not died more than once and more than once been restored to life? Why so rashly resolve to die? There is plenty of time to do so at leisure, when you know for certain that she is dead.”
“Your talk is folly,” said I: “how could one possibly learn anything with greater certainty than this? But I think I have found the best way to put an end to myself, and by it that accursed Melitte too will not escape altogether without vengeance. Listen to my plan. I had resolved, as you know, if my case came into court, to put up a defence against the charge of adultery. But I have now determined to act in a precisely contrary manner — to confess the truth of the charge, and to add that Melitte and I, deeply in love with one another, made the plot for the murder of Leucippe. Thus she too will be condemned, and I shall have a chance of getting rid of my life which I now but execrate.”
“Speak not so, (Either “speak words of better omen,” or “be silent.”)” said Clinias. “What? Could you bear to be condemned to death on the vilest of all charges, reputed a murderer and that the murderer of Leucippe?”
“Nothing,” I answered, “is vile that hurts the enemy.” Shortly after we were engaged upon these discussions the chief gaoler removed the fellow who had been sent to tell the story of the sham murder, on the pretext that the magistrate had ordered him to be fetched to answer to the charges made against him. Clinias and Satyrus did their very best to dissuade me from my purpose, exhorting me to make no such statement as I had intended at my trial: but their efforts were of no avail. They therefore on the same day hired a lodging and took up their abode there, so as no longer to be living with Melitte’s foster-brother.
[1] τῇ δ̓ ὑστεραίᾳ ἀπηγόμην ἐπὶ τὸ δικαστήριον. Παρασκευὴ δὲ πολλὴ ἦν τοῦ Θερσάνδρου κατ̓ ἐμοῦ, καὶ πλῆθος ῥητόρων οὐχ ἧττον δέκα: καὶ ἡ Μελίτη σπουδῇ πρὸς τὴν ἀπολογίαν παρεσκεύαστο. [2] Ἐπεὶ δὲ ἐπαύσαντο λέγοντες, αἰτήσας κἀγὼ λόγον ‘ἀλλ̓ οὗτοι μὲν’ ἔφην ‘ληροῦσι πάντες, καὶ οἱ Θερσάνδρῳ καὶ οἱ Μελίτῃ συνειπόντες: ἐγὼ δὲ πᾶσαν ὑμῖν ἐρῶ τὴν ἀλήθειαν. [3] Ἦν ἐρωμένη μοι πάλαι Βυζαντία μὲν γένος, Λευκίππη δὲ τοὔνομα. Ταύτην τεθνάναι δοκῶν （ἥρπαστο γὰρ ὑπὸ λῃστῶν ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ） Μελίτῃ περιτυγχάνω, κἀκεῖθεν ἀλλήλοις συνόντες ἥκομεν ἐνταῦθα κοινῇ καὶ τὴν Λευκίππην εὑρίσκομεν Σωσθένει δουλεύουσαν διοικητῇ τινι τῶν Θερσάνδρου χωρίων. [4] Ὅπως δὲ τὴν ἐλευθέραν ὁ Σωσθένης εἶχε δούλην ἢ τίς ἡ κοινωνία τοῖς λῃσταῖς πρὸς αὐτόν, ὑμῖν καταλείπω σκοπεῖν. Ἐπεὶ τοίνυν ἔμαθεν ἡ Μελίτη τὴν προτέραν εὑρόντα με γυναῖκα, φοβηθεῖσα μὴ πρὸς αὐτὴν ἀποκλίναιμι τὸν νοῦν, συμβουλεύεται τὴν ἄνθρωπον ἀνελεῖν. [5] Κἀμοὶ συνεδόκει （τί γὰρ οὐ δεῖ τἀληθῆ λέγειν;） ἐπεὶ τῶν αὑτῆς με κύριον ἀποφανεῖν ὑπισχνεῖτο. Μισθοῦμαι ἕνα δή τινα πρὸς τὸν φόνον, ἑκατὸν δ̓ ὁ μισθὸς ἦν τοῦ φόνου χρυσοῖ. Καὶ ὁ μὲν δὴ τὸ ἔργον δράσας οἴχεται κἀκ τότε γέγονεν ἀφανής, ἐμὲ δὲ ὁ ἔρως εὐθὺς ἠμύνατο. [6] Ὡς γὰρ ἔμαθον ἀνῃρημένην, μετενόουν καὶ ἔκλαον καὶ ἤρων καὶ νῦν ἐρῶ. Διὰ τοῦτο ἐμαυτοῦ κατεῖπον, ἵνα με πέμψητε πρὸς τὴν ἐρωμένην: οὐ γὰρ φέρω νῦν ζῆν, καὶ μιαιφόνος γενόμενος καὶ φιλῶν ἣν ἀπέκτεινα.’
7. On the following day I was taken to the court. Thersander had made a great show in his appearance against me, and had an array of no less than ten counsel, and every preparation for her defence had been made with great care by Melitte. When they had all finished their speeches, I asked to be allowed to speak too. “Every word,” said I, “that has been spoken by these lawyers, both those appearing for Thersander and for Melitte, is pure nonsense. I will declare to you the whole true story. Long ago I was in love with a maiden; she was a Byzantine by birth, and her name was Leucippe. I believed that she was dead — she had been carried off by brigands in Egypt — and then fell in with Melitte. A familiarity grew up between us, and from that country we came together hither, where we found Leucippe in the position of a slave belonging to Sosthenes, who was one of the bailiffs of Thersander’s country estates. How Sosthenes had obtained this free girl as a slave, and what were his relations with the brigands, I leave you to investigate. Now when Melitte learned that I had found my former mistress, she was afraid that I should again become attached to her, and began to plot to put her out of the way. I fell in with her schemes — there is nothing that stops me from revealing the truth — because she promised to make me lord and master of all her substance. I therefore hired a fellow to commit the murder; the price of it was a hundred pieces of gold. After his crime, he escaped, and from that time nothing more has been heard of him; as for me, love soon took its revenge: I felt remorse, I bewailed my crime; I was in love with her and I still am. This is the reason that I have accused myself, that you may send me after her whom I love. I can bear life no longer — I who am a murderer and still in love with the maiden whom I slew.”
[1] Ταῦτα εἰπόντος ἐμοῦ πάντας ἔκπληξις κατέσχε ἐπὶ τῷ παραλόγῳ τοῦ πράγματος, μάλιστα δὲ τὴν Μελίτην. Καὶ οἱ μὲν τοῦ Θερσάνδρου ῥήτορες μεθ̓ ἡδονῆς ἀνεβόησαν ἐπινίκιον, οἱ δὲ τῆς Μελίτης ἀνεπύθοντο τίνα ταῦτα εἴη τὰ λεχθέντα. [2] Ἡ δὲ τὰ μὲν ἐτεθορύβητο, τὰ δὲ ἠρνεῖτο, τὰ δὲ διηγεῖτο σπουδῇ μάλα καὶ σαφῶς, τὴν μὲν Λευκίππην εἰδέναι λέγουσα καὶ ὅσα εἶπον, ἀλλὰ τόν γε φόνον οὔ: ὥστε κἀκείνους διὰ τὸ τὰ πλείω μοι συνᾴδειν ὑπόνοιαν ἔχειν κατὰ τῆς Μελίτης καὶ ἀπορεῖν ὅτῳ χρήσαιντο λόγῳ πρὸς τὴν ἀπολογίαν.
8. At this speech of mine all in court were struck dumb with astonishment at the extraordinary turn affairs had taken, Melitte most of all. Thersander’s advocates were already joyfully upraising a paean of triumph, while Melitte’s questioned her as to the statements that had been made. At some she professed to be overcome with surprise and distress; some she denied, others she confessed openly and clearly; she said that she knew Leucippe, and admitted the truth of what I said, except as regards the murder; to such an extent that her counsel, on account of most of her statements corroborating mine, began to suspect that she might indeed be guilty, and were at a great loss what arguments to use in her defence.
[1] Ἐν τούτῳ δὲ ὁ Κλεινίας θορύβου πολλοῦ κατὰ τὸ δικαστήριον ὄντος ἀνελθὼν ‘κἀμοί τινα λόγον’ εἶπε ‘συγχωρήσατε: περὶ γὰρ ψυχῆς ἀνδρὸς ὁ ἀγών.’ [2] Ὡς δὲ ἔλαβε, δακρύων γεμισθεὶς ‘ἄνδρες’ εἶπεν ‘Ἐφέσιοι, μὴ προπετῶς καταγνῶτε θάνατον ἀνδρὸς ἐπιθυμοῦντος ἀποθανεῖν, ὅπερ φύσει τῶν ἀτυχούντων
ἐστὶ φάρμακον: κατέψευσται γὰρ ἑαυτοῦ τὴν τῶν ἀδικούντων αἰτίαν, ἵνα πάθῃ τὴν τῶν δυστυχούντων τιμωρίαν. [3] Ἃ δὲ ἠτύχησε διὰ βραχέων ἐρῶ. Ἐρωμένην εἶχεν, ὡς εἶπεν: τοῦτο γὰρ οὐκ ἐψεύσατο: καὶ ὅτι λῃσταὶ ταύτην ἥρπασαν καὶ τὰ περὶ Σωσθένους καὶ πάνθ̓ ὅσα πρὸ τοῦ φόνου διηγήσατο, πέπρακται τὸν τρόπον τοῦτον. [4] Αὕτη γέγονεν ἐξαίφνης ἀφανής, οὐκ οἶδ̓ ὅπως, οὔτ̓ εἴ τις ἀπέκτεινεν αὐτήν, οὔτ̓ εἰ ζῇ κλαπεῖσα: πλὴν ἓν τοῦτο οἶδα μόνον, τὸν Σωσθένην αὐτῆς ἐρῶντα καὶ αἰκισάμενον βασάνοις πολλαῖς ἐφ̓ οἷς οὐκ ἐτύγχανε, καὶ φίλους ἔχοντα λῃστάς. Οὗτος οὖν ἀνῃρῆσθαι δοκῶν τὴν γυναῖκα ζῆν οὐκέτι θέλει καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἑαυτοῦ φόνον κατεψεύσατο. [5] Ὅτι μὲν γὰρ ἐπιθυμεῖ θανάτου, καὶ αὐτὸς ὡμολόγησε, καὶ ὅτι διὰ λύπην τὴν ἐπὶ τῇ γυναικί. Σκοπεῖτε δὲ εἴ τις ἀποκτείνας τινὰ ἀληθῶς ἐπαποθανεῖν αὐτῷ θέλει καὶ ζῆν δἰ ὀδύνην οὐ φέρει. [6] Τίς οὕτω φιλόστοργος φονεύς; ἢ ποῖον μῖσός ἐστιν οὕτω φιλούμενον; Μή, πρὸς θεῶν, μὴ πιστεύσητε, μηδὲ ἀποκτείνητε ἄνθρωπον ἐλέου μᾶλλον ἢ τιμωρίας δεόμενον. Εἰ δὲ αὐτὸς ἐπεβούλευσεν, ὡς λέγει, τὸν φόνον, εἰπάτω τίς ἐστιν ὁ μεμισθωμένος, δειξάτω τὴν ἀνῃρημένην. [7] Εἰ δὲ μήθ̓ ὁ ἀποκτείνας ἐστὶ μήθ̓ ἡ ἀνῃρημένη, τίς ἤκουσε πώποτε τοιοῦτον φόνον; ‘Ἤρων’ φησὶ ‘Μελίτης: διὰ τοῦτο Λευκίππην ἀπέκτεινα.’ Πῶς οὖν Μελίτης φόνον κατηγορεῖ, ἧς ἤρα, διὰ Λευκίππην δὲ νῦν ἀποθανεῖν ἐθέλει, ἣν ἀπέκτεινεν; [8] οὕτω γὰρ ἄν τις καὶ μισοῖ τὸ φιλούμενον καὶ φιλοῖ τὸ μισούμενον; Ἆῤ οὖν οὐ πολὺ μᾶλλον ἂν καὶ ἐλεγχόμενος ἠρνήσατο τὸν φόνον, ἵνα καὶ σώσῃ τὴν ἐρωμένην καὶ ὑπὲρ τῆς ἀνῃρημένης μὴ μάτην ἀποθάνῃ; [9] Διὰ τί οὖν Μελίτης κατηγόρησεν, εἰ μηδὲν αὐτῇ τοιοῦτο πέπρακται; Ἐγὼ καὶ τοῦτο πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἐρῶ, καὶ πρὸς τῶν θεῶν μή με νομίσητε διαβάλλειν θέλοντα τὴν γυναῖκα ποιήσασθαι τὸν λόγον, ἀλλ̓ ὡς τὸ πᾶν ἐγένετο. [10] Μελίτη μὲν ἐπεπόνθει τι πρὸς τοῦτον ἐρωτικὸν καὶ περὶ τοῦ γάμου διείλεκτο, πρὶν ὁ θαλάττιος οὗτος ἀνεβίω νεκρός: ὁ δὲ οὐκ εἶχεν οὕτως, ἀλλὰ καὶ πάνυ ἐρρωμένως τὸν γάμον ἀπεκρούετο, κἀν τούτῳ τὴν ἐρωμένην εὑρών, ὡς ἔφη, παρὰ τῷ Σωσθένει ζῶσαν, ἣν ᾤετο νεκράν, πολὺ μᾶλλον πρὸς τὴν Μελίτην εἶχεν ἀλλοτριώτερον. [11] Ἡ δὲ πρὶν μαθεῖν ἐρωμένην οὖσαν αὐτῷ τὴν παρὰ τῷ Σωσθένει, ταύτην ἠλέησέ τε καὶ ἔλυσε τῶν δεσμῶν, οἷς ἦν ὑπὸ τοῦ Σωσθένους δεδεμένη, καὶ εἰς τὴν οἰκίαν τε εἰσεδέξατο καὶ τἆλλα ὡς πρὸς ἐλευθέραν δυστυχήσασαν ἐφιλοτιμήσατο: ἐπειδὴ δὲ ἔμαθεν, ἔπεμψεν εἰς τοὺς ἀγροὺς διακονησομένην αὐτῇ: καὶ μετὰ ταῦτά φασιν ἀφανῆ γεγονέναι. [12] Καὶ ὅτι ταῦτα οὐ ψεύδομαι, ἡ Μελίτη συνομολογήσει καὶ θεράπαιναι δύο, μεθ̓ ὧν αὐτὴν ἐπὶ τοὺς ἀγροὺς ἐξέπεμψεν. Ἓν μὲν δὴ τοῦτο πρὸς ὑπόνοιαν ἤγαγε τοῦτον μὴ ἄρα φονεύσασα εἴη τὴν Λευκίππην διὰ ζηλοτυπίαν αὕτη: ἕτερον δέ τι αὐτῷ πρὸς τὴν τῆς ὑπονοίας βεβαίωσιν ἐν τῷ δεσμωτηρίῳ συμβὰν καὶ καθ̓ αὑτοῦ καὶ κατὰ τῆς Μελίτης ἐξηγρίανε. [13] Τῶν δεσμωτῶν τις ὀδυρόμενος ἑαυτοῦ τὴν συμφοράν, ἔλεγεν ἐν ὁδῷ τινι κεκοινωνηκέναι κατ̓ ἄγνοιαν ἀνδρὶ φονεῖ, δεδρακέναι δ̓ ἐκεῖνον γυναικὸς φόνον ἐπὶ μισθῷ. Καὶ τοὔνομα ἔλεγε: Μελίτην μὲν εἶναι τὴν μισθωσαμένην, [14] Λευκίππην δὲ τὴν ἀνῃρημένην. Εἰ δὲ ταῦτα γέγονεν οὕτως, ἐγὼ μὲν οὐκ οἶδα, μαθεῖν δ̓ ὑμῖν ἐξέσται. Ἔχετε τὸν δεδεμένον: εἰσὶν αἱ θεράπαιναι: ἔστιν ὁ Σωσθένης. Ὁ μὲν ἐρεῖ πόθεν ἔσχε τὴν Λευκίππην δούλην, αἱ δὲ πῶς γέγονεν ἀφανής, ὁ δὲ περὶ τοῦ μισθωτοῦ καταγορεύσει. Πρὶν δὲ μάθητε τούτων ἕκαστον, οὔτε ὅσιον οὔτε εὐσεβὲς νεανίσκον ἄθλιον ἀνελεῖν, πιστεύσαντας μανίας λόγοις: μαίνεται γὰρ ὑπὸ λύπης.’
9. While the whole court was becoming a place of uproar, Clinias came forward. “Give me too leave to speak,” he said, “the case involves a man’s life.” Leave given, he began, his eyes full of tears: “Men of Ephesus, do not be too hasty to pass the death sentence upon a man who desires to die, the last remedy of the miserable; he has lied, accusing himself of the crimes committed by the guilty, in order that he may suffer the fate of the unfortunate. I will briefly relate to you the whole course of his troubles. He was in love with a maiden, as he told you; here his speech was true enough; and that brigands carried her off, and the part about Sosthenes, and the whole story that he told up till the murder, all has actually happened as he related.
True it is that she has suddenly disappeared; I know not how, nor whether somebody has really murdered her, or whether she has been spirited away and is still alive; but this alone I do know, that Sosthenes was in love with her, that he afflicted her with divers torments, and he profited nothing by them, and that he consorts with brigands as his friends. Clitophon is a man who here, thinking that his mistress is no more, no longer cares to live, and this is why he has falsely accused himself of murder. Why, he has himself confessed that he longs for death, and that for grief for a maiden lost; consider, then, if it is really probable that one individual should kill another, and then desire to be united in death with his victim, finding life intolerable from his sorrow for the victim’s death? Was there ever so affectionate a murderer, or hatred so akin to love? Believe him not, I implore you in the name of heaven, believe him not, and do not put to death a man who deserves pity rather than punishment.
“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.”
Complete Works of Achilles Tatius Page 80