by Demosthenes
Accordingly he first conspired against me with some persons with whom I was at law, and bound himself by an oath to support them; then, after my action against them had commenced, he divulged to them my arguments, with which he was acquainted, and he entered me as a debtor to the public treasury to the amount of six hundred and ten drachmae, as a fine for non-production of property （although no citation had been served upon me）, having got the case brought on through the agency of Lycidas the miller. As witnesses against me to attest the citation, he entered the name of his own brother, this Arethusius to whom these slaves belong, and another person; and they were prepared, in the event of my bringing to a preliminary hearing the suits which I had entered against my relatives who were wronging me, to lay an information against me, as being a debtor to the treasury, and throw me into prison. [15] And more than all this, he who had secured a judgement against me for six hundred and ten drachmae, when no citation had been served upon me, and had entered the names of false witnesses to the citation, made a forcible entry into my house and carried off all the furniture to the value of more than twenty minae; he did not leave a thing. I thought it my duty to avenge myself, and after paying the debt to the treasury on hearing of the fine, I was proceeding to indict the one who admitted that he had cited me to appear （that is, Arethusius）, on a charge of false citation, as the law directs. He, however, came to my farm by night, cut off all the choice fruit-grafts that were there, and the tree-vines as well, and broke down the nursery-beds of olive trees set in rows round about, making worse havoc than enemies in war would have done. [16] More than this, as they were neighbors and my farm adjoined theirs, they sent into it in the daytime a young boy who was an Athenian, and put him up to plucking off the flowers from my rose-bed, in order that, if I caught him and in a fit of anger put him in bonds or struck him, assuming him to be a slave, they might bring against me an indictment for assault.
When they failed in this, and I merely called witnesses to observe the wrong done me without committing any offence against them myself, they played against me the most dastardly trick. [17] When I had now brought my indictment of him for false citation to the preliminary examination and was about to bring the case into court, Nicostratus lay in wait for me near the stone quarries, as I was coming back late from Peiraeus, and struck me with his fist and seizing me around the waist was on the point of throwing me into the quarries, had not some people come up and, hearing my cries, run to my assistance. A few days later, I came into court on a day that was divided up among a number of cases, and proving that he had falsely attested the citation and was guilty of all the other crimes which I have mentioned, I won a conviction. [18] When it came to fixing the penalty, the jurymen wished to impose a sentence of death upon him, but I begged them to do nothing like that on a prosecution brought by me, and I agreed to the fine of a talent which these men themselves proposed, — not that I wished to save Arethusius from the death penalty （for he deserved death on account of the wrongs which he had committed against me）, but that I, Pasion’s son, made a citizen by a decree of the people, might not be said to have caused the death of any Athenian.
To prove that I have told you the truth, I shall call before you witnesses to all these facts.” Witnesses “ [19]
The wrongs done to me by these people, men of the jury, which led me to file the information, I have made clear to you. That these slaves are the property of Arethusius, and that I listed them in the inventory because they formed a part of his estate, I shall proceed to show you. Cerdon he reared from early childhood; and to prove that he belonged to Arethusius, I shall bring before you witnesses who know the fact.” Witnesses “ [20]
I shall also bring before you witnesses to prove that Arethusius got the wages on his account from all the persons with whom Cerdon ever worked, and that he used, as being his master, to receive compensation or give it, whenever Cerdon wrought any damage.” Witnesses”
As for Manes: Arethusius lent some money to Archepolis of Peiraeus, and when Archepolis was unable to pay either the interest or the principal in full, he made over to him Manes in settlement.
To prove that I am speaking the truth, I shall bring before you witnesses to establish these statements.” Witnesses “ [21]
Furthermore, from the following facts also you will see that the men belong to Arethusius. For whenever they bought up the produce of an orchard, or hired themselves out to reap a harvest, or undertook any other piece of farming work, it was Arethusius who made the purchase or paid the wages on their behalf.
To prove that I am speaking the truth, I shall bring before you witnesses to establish these statements also.” Witnesses “ [22]
All the evidence which I had to offer to prove that the slaves belong to Arethusius, I have laid before you. I wish, however, to speak also about the challenge which these men tendered me, and which I also tendered them. They challenged me at the preliminary hearing, stating that they were ready to deliver up the slaves, that I myself might put them to the torture, their wish being that this offer should serve as a sort of evidence for their side. [23] I answered, however, in the presence of witnesses, that I was ready to go with them to the senate, and in conjunction with the senate or the Eleven to receive the slaves for the torture, telling them that, if my suit against them had been a private one, I should have accepted the slaves for the torture, if they had offered them, but that, as it was, both the slaves and the information belonged to the state; and therefore the examination by the torture should be conducted by a public official. [24] I thought that it was not proper for me as a private individual to put public slaves to the torture; for I was not empowered to conduct the torture, nor was it proper that I should decide on the meaning of the answers given by the men. I thought that the Eleven, or persons chosen by the senate, should have everything written down, and then, having sealed up the evidence extorted by the torture — the answers, that is, given by the men — should produce it in court, that you might hear it, and in the light of this reach whatever verdict you might think right. [25] For if the men had been put to the torture privately by me, everything would have been disputed by these men; but, if publicly, we should have kept quiet, and the officers or those chosen by the senate would have carried on the torture as far as they saw fit. When I made this offer, they declared that they would not deliver up the slaves to the officials, nor would they go with me to the senate.
To prove that I am speaking the truth, call, please, the witnesses to these facts.” Witnesses “ [26]
Their shameless impudence in laying claim to what is yours appears to me manifest on many grounds, but I shall make their character to appear most clearly by a reference to your laws. For these men, when the jurors wished to impose a sentence of death upon Arethusius, begged the jurors to impose a fine in money, and begged me to give my assent to this; and they agreed to be jointly responsible for the payment. [27] But so far are they from making payment according to their guarantee, that they even lay claim to what is yours. And yet the laws enact that any man’s estate shall be confiscated who, after guaranteeing any sum due to the state, does not make good his guarantee; so that, even if the slaves belonged to them, they ought to be state-property, if the laws are of any use. [28] And before Arethusius became a debtor to the state, he was admitted to be the richest of the brothers, but since the laws declare his property to be yours, Arethusius is made out to be a poor man, and his mother lays claim to one part of his property, and his brothers to another. If they had wished to act fairly toward you, they should have disclosed the entire estate of Arethusius, and then have filed a claim, if any of their own property had been included in the inventory. [29] If, then, you reflect that there will be no lack of persons to lay claim to what is yours — for they will either suborn some orphans or heiresses and claim your sympathy, or they will talk about old age and embarrassments and a mother’s maintenance, and by dwelling tearfully upon these matters by which they think they can most easily deceive you, they will t
ry to rob the state of what is due her; — if, I say, you disregard all these tricks, and reach an adverse verdict, you will decide aright.
AGAINST CONON
Translated by Norman W. DeWitt
With gross outrage I have met, men of the jury, at the hands of the defendant, Conon, and have suffered such bodily injury that for a very long time neither my relatives nor any of the attending physicians thought that I should survive. Contrary to expectation, however, I did recover and regain my strength, and I then brought against him this action for the assault. All my friends and relatives, whose advice I asked, declared that for what he had done the defendant was liable to summary seizure as a highwayman, or to public indictments for criminal outrage; but they urged and advised me not to take upon myself matters which I should not be able to carry, or to appear to be bringing suit for the maltreatment I had received in a manner too ambitious for one so young. I took this course, therefore, and, in deference to their advice, have instituted a private suit, although I should have been very glad, men of Athens, to prosecute the defendant on a capital charge. [2] And for this you will all pardon me, I am sure, when you hear what I have suffered. For, grievous as was the injury which at that time fell to my lot, it was no more so than the subsequent insults of the defendant. I ask as my right, therefore, and implore you all without distinction, to listen with goodwill, while I tell you what I have suffered, and then, if you think that I have been the victim of wrongful and lawless acts, to render me the aid which is my due. I shall state to you from the beginning each incident as it occurred in the fewest words I can. [3]
Two years ago I went out to Panactum, where we had been ordered to do garrison duty. The sons of the defendant, Conon, encamped near us, as I would to heaven they had not done; for our original enmity and our quarrels began in fact just there. How these came about, you shall hear. These men used always to spend the entire day after luncheon in drinking, and they kept this up continually as long as we were in the garrison. We, on our part, conducted ourselves while in the country just as we were wont to do here. [4] Well, at whatever time the others might be having their dinner, these men were already drunk and abusive, at first toward our body-slaves, but in the end toward ourselves. For, alleging that the slaves annoyed them with smoke while getting dinner, or were impudent toward them, or whatever else they pleased, they used to beat them and empty their chamber-pots over them, or befoul them with urine; there was nothing in the way of brutality and outrage in which they did not indulge. When we saw this, we were annoyed and at first expostulated with them, but they mocked at us, and would not desist, and so our whole mess in a body — not I alone apart from the rest — went to the general and told him what was going on. [5] He rebuked them with stern words, not only for their brutal treatment of us, but for their whole behavior in camp; yet so far from desisting, or being ashamed of their acts, they burst in upon us that very evening as soon as it grew dark, and, beginning with abusive language, they proceeded to beat me, and they made such a clamor and tumult about the tent, that both the general and the taxiarchs came and some of the other soldiers, by whose coming we were prevented from suffering, or ourselves doing, some damage that could not be repaired, being victims as we were of their drunken violence. [6] When matters had gone thus far, it was natural that after our return home there should exist between us feelings of anger and hatred. However, on my own part I swear by the gods I never saw fit to bring an action against them, or to pay any attention to what had happened. I simply made this resolve — in future to be on my guard, and to take care to have nothing to do with people of that sort.
I wish in the first place to bring before you depositions proving these statements, and then to show what I have suffered at the hands of the defendant himself, in order that you may see that Conon, who should have dealt rigorously with the first offences, has himself added to these far more outrageous acts of his own doing.” Depositions “ [7]
These, then, are the acts of which I thought proper to take no account. Not long after this, however, one evening, when I was taking a walk, as my custom was, in the agora with Phanostratus of Cephisia, a man of my own age, Ctesias, the son of the defendant, passed by me in a drunken state opposite the Leocorion, near the house of Pythodorus. At sight of us he uttered a yell, and, saying something to himself, as a drunken man does, in an unintelligible fashion, passed on up, toward Melitê. Gathered together there for a drinking bout, as we afterwards learned, at the house of Pamphilus the fuller, were the defendant Conon, a certain Theotimus, Archeblades, Spintharus, son of Eubulus, Theogenes, son of Andromenes, and a number of others. Ctesias made them all get up, and proceeded to the agora. [8] It happened that we were turning back from the temple of Persephonê, and on our walk were again about opposite the Leocorion when we met them. When we got close to them one of them, I don’t know which, fell upon Phanostratus and pinned him, while the defendant Conon together with his son and the son of Andromenes threw themselves upon me. They first stripped me of my cloak, and then, tripping me up they thrust me into the mud and leapt upon me and beat me with such violence that my lip was split open and my eyes closed; and they left me in such a state that I could neither get up nor utter a sound. As I lay there I heard them utter much outrageous language, [9] a great deal of which was such foul abuse that I should shrink from repeating some of it in your presence. One thing, however, which is an indication of the fellow’s insolence and a proof that the whole affair has been of his doing, I will tell you. He began to crow, mimicking fighting cocks that have won a battle and his fellows bade him flap his elbows against his sides like wings. After this some people who happened to pass took me home stripped as I was, for these men had gone off taking my cloak with them. When my bearers got to my door, my mother and the women servants began shrieking and wailing, and it was with difficulty that I was at length carried to a bath. There I was thoroughly bathed, and shown to the surgeons.
To prove that these statements of mine are true, I shall call before you the witnesses who attest them.” Witnesses “ [10]
It happened, men of the jury, that Euxitheus of Cholleidae, who is here in court and is a relative of mine, and with him Meidias, on their way back from a dinner somewhere, came up to me, when I was now near my home, followed after me as I was borne to the bath, and were present when men brought the surgeon. I was so weak, that, as it was far for me to be carried from the bath to my home, those who were with me decided to carry me to the house of Meidias for that night; and so they did.
Now let the clerk take the depositions establishing these facts, that you may understand that a host of people know what outrage I suffered at the hands of these men.” Depositions”
Take now the deposition of the surgeon also.” Deposition “ [11]
At that time, then, as the immediate result of the blows and the maltreatment I received, I was brought into this condition, as you hear from my own lips, and as all the witnesses who saw me at the time have testified. Afterwards, although the swellings on my face and the bruises, my physician said, did not give him great concern, continuous attacks of fever ensued and violent and acute pains throughout all my body, but especially in my sides and the pit of my stomach, and I was unable to take my food. [12] Indeed, the surgeon said that, if a copious hemorrhage had not spontaneously occurred, while my agony was extreme and my attendants were at their wits’ end, I should have died of internal suppuration; but as it was, this loss of blood saved me.
To prove now that these statements of mine are true, and that from the blows which these men dealt me there resulted an illness so severe that it brought me to the point of death. Read the depositions of the surgeon and of those who came to see me.” Depositions “ [13]
That the wounds I received, then, were not slight or trifling, but that I was brought near to death by the outrage and brutality of these men, and that the action which I have entered is far more lenient than the case deserves, has been made clear to you, I think, on many grounds. I fancy, howe
ver, that some of you are wondering what in the world there can be that Conon will have the audacity to say in reply to these charges. I wish, therefore, to tell you in advance the defence which I hear he is prepared to make. He will try to divert your attention from the outrage and the actual facts, and will seek to turn the whole matter into mere jest and ridicule. [14] He will tell you that there are many people in the city, sons of respectable persons, who in sport, after the manner of young men, have given themselves nicknames, such as Ithyphalli or Autolecythi, and that some of them are infatuated with mistresses; that his own son is one of these and has often given and received blows on account of some girl; and that things of this sort are natural for young men. As for me and all my brothers, he will make out that we are not only drunken and insolent fellows, but also unfeeling and vindictive. [15]