Delphi Complete Works of Demosthenes

by Demosthenes

  But perhaps because the role he adopts is to rail at everyone, to shout people down and find fault with their speeches, therefore it is convenient in these times to protect him. Gentlemen of the jury, I swear by the goddess of Athens that what takes place on the hustings is a disgrace to our city, and it is through the recklessness of such speakers that political life is now discredited with all decent citizens. But if any of you happen to like that sort of thing, you will never want for such performers. Why, even now the platform swarms with them. For to pick holes in the counsel offered is not difficult, but it is difficult to advise you and persuade you to pass any indispensable resolution. [20] Furthermore, if he had not already deceived you by using these same arguments, when he was on trial at the earlier information, even so it would not be just to make any concession contrary to the existing laws; for you must not allow some persons to break the law and insist on the rest obeying it. Yet just possibly it might then have been more reasonable to trust him and grant him privileges and sacrifice some of these principles. [21] But after you had let him off, admittedly in hope of amendment, and then shortly after had to punish the same man again for speaking and acting against the best interests of the city, what reasonable excuse is left you if you are a second time hoodwinked? When you have tried him by deeds, why need you trust his words? In cases where you have not yet an accurate test ready to hand, it may perhaps be necessary to judge by words. [22] But, for myself, I am amazed that there are men so constituted that, though they deposit private property with those only whose past record shows them to be honest, they entrust public affairs to men who have been admittedly proved unscrupulous. No one would dream of setting a sorry mongrel to guard a flock; yet some people say that, to keep watch on those who administer the State, one need only employ the first comers, men who pretend to detect delinquents, but need the most careful watching themselves. [23]

  If you are wise, you will bear this in mind. Turn a deaf ear to those who profess to be devoted to you, and take your own precautions to ensure that you grant to no one the power to make your laws null and void, especially to no one of those who pretend to be able to speak and legislate in the interests of the masses. It is preposterous that your ancestors faced death to save the laws from destruction, but that you do not even punish those who have offended against the laws; that you set up in the market-place a bronze statue of Solon, who framed the laws, but show yourselves regardless of those very laws for the sake of which he has received such exceptional honor. [24] Is it not an absurd situation that you should by legislating express your anger against the criminals, but, when you have caught any of them red-handed, should proceed to let them go unscathed? That the lawgiver, a single individual, should on your behalf incur the hostility of all the worthless, but that you yourselves, collected together to defend your own interests, should not even display your hatred of the wicked, but should be overpowered by the wickedness of a single individual? That you should have fixed death as the penalty if anyone cites a law which does not exist, and yet should allow men to escape unpunished who reduce the existing laws to the level of laws which do not exist? [25]

  The surest way to realize the blessing of obedience to the established laws, and the curse of despising and disobeying them, is to put before your eyes and examine separately the advantages that you derive from the laws and the results of lawlessness. For you will find that the fruits of lawlessness are madness, intemperance and greed, but from the laws come wisdom, sobriety and justice. [26] This is clearly so, because we can see that those cities are best ordered which have given birth to the best lawgivers. For as the distempers of the body are arrested by the discoveries of physicians, so savagery is expelled from the soul by the wise purposes of the legislator. To sum up we shall find nothing venerable or admirable which is not associated with law, [27] since the whole round world, the heavenly bodies and what we call the seasons are plainly, if we can trust our senses, controlled by law and order. Therefore, men of Athens, exhort one another to come to the rescue of the laws, and cast your votes against those who deliberately dishonor what is divine; and if you do this, you will be doing your duty and making the best use of your votes.

  AGAINST APHOBUS 1

  Translated by A. T. Murray

  If Aphobus, men of the jury, had been willing to do what is fair, or to submit the matters in dispute between us to the arbitration of friends, there would be no occasion for a troublesome lawsuit; for I should have been satisfied to abide by their decision, and we should have had no controversy with him. Since, however, he has refused to let those well acquainted with our affairs give a decision, and has come before you, who have no accurate knowledge of them, it must be in your court that I try to win from him what is my due. [2] I know well, men of the jury, that it is a hard task to enter into a contest in which all my fortune is at stake with men who are able speakers and clever in preparing their case, while I because of my youth am wholly without experience in affairs. Yet nevertheless, although they have every advantage over me, I have strong hopes that I shall obtain justice in your court, and that, as far at least as relating the facts, I shall myself speak well enough to ensure that not a single detail shall escape you, and that you will not be in the dark regarding the matters concerning which you are to cast your vote. [3] I beg of you, men of the jury, to give me a favorable hearing, and, if you judge that I have been wronged, to render me the aid which is my due. I shall make my speech as brief as possible, and shall begin by endeavoring to inform you of the facts from which you will most readily understand the case. [4]

  Demosthenes, my father, men of the jury, left at his death an estate of nearly fourteen talents, a son, myself, aged seven, and my sister, aged five, and his widow, our mother, who had brought him a fortune of fifty minae. He had taken thought for our welfare, and, when he was about to die, put all this property in the hands of the defendant, Aphobus, and Demophon, son of Demo, nephews of his, one by his brother, the other by his sister, and of Therippides of Paeania, who was not a relative, but had been his friend from boyhood. [5] To Therippides he gave the interest on seventy minae of my property, to be enjoyed by him until I should come of age, in order that avarice might not tempt him to mismanage my affairs. To Demophon he gave my sister with a dowry of two talents, to be paid at once, and to the defendant himself he gave our mother with a dowry of eighty minae, and the right to use my house and furniture. His thought was that, if he should unite these men to me by still closer ties, they would look after my interests the better because of this added bond of kinship. [6] But these men, who took at once their own legacies from the estate, and as my guardians administered all the remainder for ten years, have robbed me of my entire fortune except the house, and fourteen slaves and thirty silver minae, which they have handed over to me — amounting in all to about seventy minae. [7] This, men of the jury, to put it as briefly as possible, is a summing up of the wrongs they have done me. But of the fact that the amount of property left by my father was as much as I have stated these men themselves have proved the most convincing witnesses, for in the tax-company they agreed on my behalf to a tax of five hundred drachmae on every twenty-five minae — a tax equal to that paid by Timotheus, son of Conon, and those possessing the largest fortunes. However, I had better inform you in detail what portions of the property were producing a profit and what were unproductive, and what were their respective values; for when you have accurate information regarding these matters, you will know that of all who have ever acted as trustees none have so shamelessly and so openly plundered an estate as these men have plundered ours. [8] I shall produce witnesses to prove, first, that in the tax-company they agreed on my behalf to be taxed to the amount which I have stated, and, next, that my father did not leave me a poor man, nor one possessing an estate of merely seventy minae. On the contrary, my estate was so considerable that these men were themselves unable to hide its value from the state.

  Take, please, and read this deposition.” Deposition “ [9]
r />   From this evidence it is clear what the value of the property was. Three talents is the tax on an estate of fifteen, and this tax they saw fit to pay. But you will see this more clearly if you hear what the property was. My father, men of the jury, left two factories, both doing a large business. One was a sword-manufactory, employing thirty-two or thirty-three slaves, most of them worth five or six minae each and none worth less than three minae. From these my father received a clear income of thirty minae each year. The other was a sofa-manufactory, employing twenty slaves, given to my father as security for a debt of forty minae. These brought him in a clear income of twelve minae. In money he left as much as a talent, loaned at the rate of a drachma a month, the interest of which amounted to more than seven minae a year. [10] This was the amount of productive capital which my father left, as these men will themselves admit, the principal amounting to four talents and five thousand drachmae, and the proceeds to fifty minae each year. Besides this, he left ivory and iron, used in the factory, and wood for sofas, worth about eighty minae; and gall and copper, which he had bought for seventy minae; furthermore, a house worth three thousand drachmae, and furniture and plate, and my mother’s jewelry and apparel and ornaments, worth in all ten thousand drachmae, and in the house eighty minae in silver. [11] To these sums left by him at home we must add seventy minae, a maritime loan to Xuthus; twenty-four hundred drachmae in the bank of Pasion, six hundred in that of Pylades, sixteen hundred in the hands of Demomeles, son of Demon, and about a talent loaned without interest in sums of two hundred or three hundred drachmae. The total of these last sums amounts to more than eight talents and fifty minae, and the whole taken together you will find on examination to come to about fourteen talents. [12]

  This, then, men of the jury, was the amount of property left by my father. How much of it has been squandered, how much they have severally taken, and of how much they have jointly robbed me, it is impossible to tell in the time allotted to one plea. I must discuss each one of these questions separately. I pass over the question as to what property of mine Demophon or Therippides are holding. It will be time enough to discuss this when I bring in my accusations against them. I shall speak to you now of the defendant and shall state what his colleagues prove that he has in his hands, and what I know he has taken. In the first place I shall show that he has the marriage-portion, the eighty minae, and after that shall take up the other matters and discuss them with the utmost brevity. [13]

  Immediately after my father’s death the defendant came and dwelt in the house according to the terms of the will, and took possession of my mother’s jewels and the plate. In these he received the equivalent of about fifty minae. Furthermore, he received from Therippides and Demophon the proceeds of the sale of the slaves until he had made up the full amount of the marriage-portion, eighty minae; [14] and after getting this, when he was about to set sail for Corcyra as trierarch, he sent Therippides a written acknowledgement that he had these sums in his possession, and admitted that he had received the marriage-portion. Of these matters Demophon and Therippides, his co-trustees, are witnesses, and, besides this, his own acknowledgement of having received these moneys is attested by Demochares, of Leuconion, who is the husband of my aunt, and by many other witnesses. [15] For when it proved that Aphobus, though he had her fortune, would not maintain my mother, and refused to let the property, choosing rather to administer it himself in conjunction with the other guardians, Demochares remonstrated with him about the matter; and Aphobus, when he had heard him, neither denied that he had the money nor waxed indignant as one who had received nothing, but admitted the fact, and said that he was having a little dispute with my mother about her jewels, and that, when he had settled this matter, he would act regarding the maintenance and all else in such a way that I should have no ground for complaint. [16] Yet, if it be shown that he made these admissions before Demochares and the others who were present; that he received from Demophon and Therippides the money accruing from the sale of the slaves in part settlement of the marriage portion; that he gave to his co-trustees a written acknowledgement that he had received the portion; and that he occupied the house immediately after the death of my father; will it not be clear — the matter being admitted by everybody — that he has received the portion, the eighty minae, and that his denial of having received it is a piece of shameless impudence? [17]

  To prove that what I say is true, take and read the depositions.” Depositions”

  The dowry, then, he got in this way, and kept. But in the event of his not marrying my mother the law declares that he owes me the amount of the dowry with interest at nine obols a month. However, I set it down at a drachma a month only. This comes, if one adds the principle and the interest for ten years, to about three talents. [18] This money I have thus shown you that he received and that he confessed in the presence of a host of witnesses that he had it. Then he has also in his possession thirty minae besides, which he received as the revenue from the factory, and of which he has tried to defraud me in the most shameless manner possible. My father left me a revenue of thirty minae accruing from the factory; and after the sale by these men of one-half of the slaves, I should receive the proportionate sum of fifteen minae. [19] Therippides, however, who had charge of the slaves for seven years, has submitted an account of eleven minae a year, four minae a year less than it should have been; and the defendant who had charge of the business at the first for two years shows no profit whatever, but says sometimes that the factory was idle, and sometimes that he was not himself the manager, but that the foreman, Milyas, a freedman of ours, had charge of it, and that I should look for an accounting from him. If he persists even now in making any of these statements he will easily be convicted of falsehood. [20] If he declares that the factory was idle, yet he has himself rendered an account of money expended, not on provisions for the men, but for their work — ivory for the trade, swordhandles, and other supplies — indicating that the workmen were busy. Furthermore, he charges me with money which he has paid to Therippides for the hire of three slaves of his who were in my factory. Yet if no work was being done, Therippides should have received no pay, nor should these expenditures have been charged to me. [21] Again, if he alleges that the work was done, but that there was no market for goods manufactured, he ought at any rate to show that he has delivered to me these goods, and to produce witnesses in whose presence he delivered them. Seeing that he has done neither of these things, how can you doubt that he is keeping thirty minae, the two years’ income from the factory, since the business has so manifestly been carried on? [22] If, however, he shall make none of these statements, but shall assert that Milyas had charge of everything, how can you believe him, when he alleges that he himself made the disbursements amounting to more than five hundred drachmae, but that any profits which accrued are in the hands of Milyas? For my part, I think it likely that the very opposite is the case, supposing that Milyas actually did have charge of the work, — that he made the disbursements, and that Aphobus received the profits, if we may draw any conclusion from the general character and the shamelessness of the man.

  Take now and read these depositions to the jury.” Depositions “ [23]

  These thirty minae, then, he has received from the factory, and the interest on them for eight years; and if one sets this down at the rate of a drachma only, it will make thirty minae more. These sums he has himself embezzled, and, if they be added to the marriage-portion, the total is about four talents, principal and interest combined. Now I shall go on to show you what sums he has embezzled in conjunction with his co-trustees, and what sums he asserts were never left by my father at all. [24] First, regarding the twenty sofa-makers, given to my father as security for a debt of forty minae, whom my father certainly left behind him at his death, but of whom these men show not a trace — let me prove to you with what utter shamelessness and how openly they are seeking to cheat me of these. That these slaves were left by my father in the house they all admit, and that they
brought him in an income of twelve minae every year. Yet these men report no receipts as having come in to my credit from them in ten years, and Aphobus reckons up a total expenditure on them of nearly a thousand drachmae. To such a pitch of effrontery has he come! [25] And these slaves themselves, upon whom he alleges that he has expended the money, they have never handed over to me. On the contrary, they tell the idlest tale imaginable, to the effect that the man who pledged the slaves to my father is the vilest sort of a fellow, who has left many friendly loans unpaid, and who is overwhelmed with debt; and to prove this against him they have called a large number of witnesses. But as for the slaves — who got them; how they went out of the house; who took them away; or in what suit they lost them by judgement, they are unable to say. [26] Yet, if there were any truth in what they allege they would not be bringing forward witnesses to prove this man’s vile character （with which I have no concern）, but would be holding on to the slaves, or would show who took them, and would have left not one of them out of sight. But as it is, though they admit that the slaves were left by my father, and though they took possession of them and enjoyed the profits from them for ten years, they have in the most ruthless manner possible done away with the whole factory.

  To prove that I am speaking the truth in this, take, please, and read the depositions.” Depositions “ [27]

  That, moreover, Moeriades was not without resources and that my father did not act foolishly in making the contract with him about the slaves, I will show you by the clearest proof. For after Aphobus took into his own hands the factory as you have yourselves heard from the witnesses, when it was his duty as my guardian to prevent anyone else from advancing money on the same security, he himself loaned to Moeriades on the security of these same slaves the sum of five hundred drachmae, which he admits he has duly recovered from him in full. [28] And yet is it not outrageous that we who made the prior loan should, besides having received no profit from the slaves, have lost our security, while this fellow, who loaned money on security belonging to us, and whose loan was so long subsequent to ours, should from funds that were ours have recovered both principal and interest, and have suffered no loss whatever? To prove that what I say is true, take the deposition and read it.” Deposition “ [29]