by Demosthenes
[22] καὶ τοῦθ᾽ οὕτω τὸ δίκαιον ἐν πᾶσιν ἰσχύει, ὥστ᾽ ἐὰν ἑλών τις ἀκουσίου φόνου καὶ φανερῶς ἐπιδείξας μὴ καθαρόν, μετὰ ταῦτ᾽ αἰδέσηται καὶ ἀφῇ, οὐκέτ᾽ ἐκβαλεῖν κύριος τὸν αὐτόν ἐστιν. εἶθ᾽ ὑπὲρ μὲν ψυχῆς καὶ τῶν μεγίστων οὕτως ἰσχύει καὶ μένει τὸ ἀφεῖναι, ὑπὲρ δὲ χρημάτων καὶ ἐλαττόνων ἐγκλημάτων ἄκυρον ἔσται; μηδαμῶς. οὐ γὰρ εἰ μὴ τῶν δικαίων ἐγὼ παρ᾽ ὑμῖν τεύξομαι, τοῦτ᾽ ἔστι δεινότατον, ἀλλ᾽ εἰ πρᾶγμα δίκαιον ὡρισμένον ἐκ παντὸς τοῦ χρόνου νῦν καταλυθήσεται.
[22] And this just principle is so binding among all men, that, if one, having convicted another of involuntary homicide, and clearly shown him to be polluted, subsequently takes pity upon him, and releases him, he has no longer the right to have the same person driven into exile. If, then, when life and all that is most precious are at stake, a release has this power and validity, shall it be without effect, when money is at stake, or claims of lesser importance? Surely not. For the thing most to be feared is, not that I should fail to obtain justice in your court, but that a just practice, established from the beginning of time, should now be done away with.
[23] οὐκ ἐμίσθωσαν ἡμῶν τὸν οἶκον, ἴσως ἐροῦσιν. οὐ γὰρ ἐβούλεθ᾽ ὁ θεῖος ὑμῶν Ξενοπείθης, ἀλλὰ φήναντος Νικίδου τοὺς δικαστὰς ἔπεισεν ἐᾶσαι αὑτὸν διοικεῖν: καὶ ταῦτ᾽ ἴσασιν πάντες. πολλὰ διήρπασαν ἡμῶν ἐκεῖνοι. οὐκοῦν ἣν ἐπείσθητέ γε, τούτων δίκην παρ᾽ αὐτῶν ἔχετε, καὶ οὐ δήπουθεν πάλιν δεῖ λαβεῖν ὑμᾶς παρ᾽ ἐμοῦ.
[23] “They did not let our property,” they will perhaps say. No; for your uncle Xenopeithes did not want it let, but, after Nicidas had denounced him for this, induced the jurors to allow him to administer it; and this everybody knows. “They robbed us of huge sums.” Well, for this you have received from them the damages upon which you agreed; and, I take it, you are not entitled to recover it again from me.
[24] ἵνα δὲ μηδ᾽ οἴησθ᾽ εἶναί τι ταῦτα, ἔστι μὲν οὐκ ἴσον （πῶς γάρ;） πρὸς τοὺς πράξαντας διαλυσαμένους τῶν οὐκ εἰδότων κατηγορεῖν, ὅμως μέντοι, ὦ Ξενοπείθη καὶ Ναυσίμαχε, εἰ μεγάλ᾽ ὑμῖν καὶ θαυμάστ᾽ εἶναι τὰ δίκαια ταῦθ᾽ ὑπολαμβάνετε, ἀποδόντες τὰ τρία τάλαντα περαίνετε. ὧν δὲ τοῦ μὴ κατηγορῆσαι τοσαῦτα χρήματ᾽ ἐπράξασθε, πρὶν ἂν ταῦτ᾽ ἀποδῶτε, σιωπᾶν ἐστὲ δίκαιοι, καὶ μὴ κατηγορεῖν καὶ ἔχειν: ἔσχατον γὰρ ἤδη πραγμάτων τοῦτό γε.
[24] But, that you may not think there is anything in all this — it is of course not fair （how could it be?） after having come to a settlement with the guilty parties, to accuse persons who know nothing about the case — none the less, Xenopeithes and Nausimachus, if you have the idea that your claims are so marvellously valid, pay back three talents, and go on with your suit. After having exacted so large a sum for not pressing your charges, you are bound to keep silent until you have paid this back — not to make the charges and keep the money; that is the very extreme of unfair dealing.
[25] τάχα τοίνυν ἴσως καὶ τριηραρχίας ἐροῦσι, καὶ τὰ ὄνθ᾽ ὡς ἀνηλώκασιν εἰς ὑμᾶς. ἐγὼ δ᾽ ὅτι μὲν ψεύσονται, καὶ πόλλ᾽ ἀπολωλεκότες τῶν ὄντων αὑτοῖς, μικρὰ τῆς πόλεως μετειληφυίας, οὐ δικαίαν οὐδὲ γιγνομένην χάριν ἀξιώσουσι κομίζεσθαι παρ᾽ ὑμῶν, ἐάσω. ἀξιῶ δὲ καὶ αὐτός, ὦ ἄνδρες δικασταί, εἶναι τοῖς λῃτουργοῦσιν ὑμῖν ἅπασιν χάριν τιν᾽ ὑπάρχουσαν παρ᾽ ὑμῶν. τίσιν δὲ μεγίστην; τοῖς ὃ μὲν χρήσιμον τῇ πόλει τοῦ πράγματός ἐστι ποιοῦσιν, ὃ δ᾽ αἰσχρὸν ἅπαντες ἂν εἶναι φήσαιεν καὶ ὄνειδος, μὴ κατασκευάζουσιν.
[25] Now it is likely that they will talk about their trierarchies, and say that they have expended their property upon you. That their statements will be false; that they have squandered much of their property upon themselves, while the state has received but a small share; and that they will deem it right to reap from you a gratitude that is not deserved nor due — all this I shall pass over. I myself, men of the jury, deem it right that somewhat of gratitude should be accorded by you to all who bear the public burdens. But to whom should you accord most gratitude? To those who, while in their actions doing what is of service to the state, do not bring to pass what all would call a shame and a reproach.
[26] οἱ μὲν τοίνυν μετὰ τοῦ λῃτουργεῖν τὰ σφέτερ᾽ αὐτῶν διεφθαρκότες τὴν βλασφημίαν ἀντὶ τῆς χρείας τῇ πόλει καταλείπουσιν （οὐδεὶς γὰρ αὐτὸς αὑτοῦ κατηγόρησεν πώποτε, ἀλλ᾽ ὡς ἡ πόλις τὰ ὄντ᾽ ἀφῄρηται λέγει）: οἱ δ᾽ ὅσα μὲν προστάττεθ᾽ ὑμεῖς ποιοῦντες προθύμως, τῇ περὶ τἄλλα δὲ σωφροσύνῃ τὰ ὄντα σῴζοντες, οὐ μόνον κατὰ τοῦτ᾽ ἐκείνων πλεονεκτοῖεν ἂν εἰκότως, ὅτι καὶ γεγόνασιν χρήσιμοι καὶ ἔσονται, ἀλλ᾽ ὅτι καὶ χωρὶς ὀνείδους ταῦτα παρ᾽ αὐτῶν ὑμῖν γίγνεται. ἡμεῖς μὲν τοίνυν τοιοῦτοι εἰς ὑμᾶς ἅπαντες φανούμεθ᾽ ὄντες: τούτους δ᾽ ἐάσω, μή με φῶσιν κακῶς αὑτοὺς λέγειν.
[26] But those who while performing public services have squandered their own property, bring the state into disrepute instead of rendering her service. For no man ever yet blamed himself; on the contrary, he declares that the state has taken away his property. But those who with ready hearts perform all the duties you lay upon them, and who by the soberness of their lives in other matters preserve their property, rightly have the better of the others in this respect, that they both have been and will be of service, and also because this service accrues to you from them without reproach. We shall be found to be men of this type in our relations to you; as for them, I shall pass them by, that they may not charge that I am speaking evil of them.
[27] οὐ τοίνυν θαυμάσαιμ᾽ ἄν, εἰ καὶ δακρύειν καὶ ἐλεινοὺς ἑαυτοὺς πειρῷντο ποιεῖν. ἐγὼ δ᾽ ἀξιῶ πρὸς ταῦθ᾽ ὑπολαμβάνειν ἅπαντας ὑμᾶς, ὅτι τῶν αἰσχρῶν ἐστι, μᾶλλον δ᾽ οὐδὲ δικαίων, τὰ μὲν ὄντα κατεσθίοντας καὶ παροινοῦντας μετ᾽ Ἀριστοκράτους καὶ Διογνήτου καὶ τοιούτων ἑτέρων αἰσχρῶς καὶ κακῶς ἀνηλωκέναι, τὰ δ᾽ ἀλλότρι᾽ ὥστε λαβεῖν, δακρύειν νυνὶ καὶ κλάειν. ἐπ᾽ ἐκείνοις ἐκλάετ᾽ ἄν, οἷς ἐποιεῖτε, δικαίως. νῦν δ᾽ οὐ δεῖ δακρύειν, ἀλλ᾽ ὡς οὐκ ἀφήκατε δεικνύναι, ἢ ὡς εἰσὶν ὧν ἀφήκατ᾽ αὖθις ὑμῖν δίκαι, ἢ ὡς εἰκοστῷ λαγχάνειν ἔτει δίκαιόν ἐστι, τοῦ νόμου πέντ᾽ ἔτη τὴν προθεσμία�
� δεδωκότος: ταῦτα γάρ ἐστιν ὑπὲρ ὧν οὗτοι δικάζουσιν.
[27] I should not be surprised if they try to shed tears and make themselves seem worthy of pity. But I deem that, in view of this, you should all remember that it is the part of shameless men, or rather of men with no sense of right, after having squandered their fortune in gluttony and wine-bibbing along with Aristocrates and Diognetus and others of that stamp in shameful and evil fashion, to weep and wail now in the hope of getting what belongs to others. You would have good cause to weep over your former doings. Yet it is not now a time to weep, but to prove that you did not give a release, or that action may be had afresh for the matters released, or that it is legal to bring an action after the lapse of twenty years, when the law has fixed five years as the limit. These are the questions which these gentlemen are to decide.
[28] ἐὰν δὲ μὴ δύνωνται ταῦτα δεικνύναι, ὡς οὐ δυνήσονται, ἡμεῖς ὑμῶν ἁπάντων, ὦ ἄνδρες δικασταί, δεόμεθα μὴ ἡμᾶς προέσθαι τούτοις, μηδὲ τετάρτην οὐσίαν ἔτι δοῦναι τρεῖς ἑτέρας κακῶς διῳκηκόσιν, ἣν παρ᾽ ἑκόντων ἔλαβον τῶν ἐπιτρόπων, ἣν ὑπὲρ τῶν δικῶν εἰσεπράξαντο, ἣν πρῴην ἀφείλοντ᾽ Αἰσίου δίκην ἑλόντες, ἀλλ᾽ ἡμᾶς τὰ ἡμέτερα, ὥσπερ ἐστὶν δίκαιον, ἐᾶν ἔχειν: ἃ καὶ ὑμῖν ἐστιν ἐν ὠφελείᾳ μείζονι παρ᾽ ἡμῖν ὄντ᾽ ἢ παρὰ τούτοις, καὶ δικαιότερον δήπου τὰ ἡμέτερα ἡμᾶς ἐστιν ἔχειν ἢ τούτους.
οὐκ οἶδ᾽ ὅ τι δεῖ πλείω λέγειν: οἶμαι γὰρ ὑμᾶς οὐδὲν ἀγνοεῖν τῶν εἰρημένων. ἐξέρα τὸ ὕδωρ.
[28] If they are unable to prove these things, as they will be unable, we beg of you all, men of the jury, not to deliver us up as prey to these men, nor to give yet a fourth fortune to those who have mismanaged three others — that which they received from their guardians without compulsion, that which they exacted by compromising their suits, and that which the other day they took from Aesius by a judgement — but to allow us, as is right, to retain what is our own. It is of greater service to you in our hands than in theirs. And surely it is more just that we should have what is our own than that they should have it.
I do not know what reason there is why I should say more; for I believe that nothing that I have said has escaped you. Pour out the water.
πρὸς Βοιωτὸν περὶ τοῦ Ὀνόματος. — AGAINST BOEOTUS 1
[1] οὐδεμιᾷ φιλοπραγμοσύνῃ μὰ τοὺς θεούς, ὦ ἄνδρες δικασταί, τὴν δίκην ταύτην ἔλαχον Βοιωτῷ, οὐδ᾽ ἠγνόουν ὅτι πολλοῖς ἄτοπον δόξει τὸ δίκην ἐμὲ λαγχάνειν, εἴ τις ἐμοὶ ταὐτὸν ὄνομ᾽ οἴεται δεῖν ἔχειν: ἀλλ᾽ ἀναγκαῖον ἦν ἐκ τῶν συμβησομένων, εἰ μὴ τοῦτο διορθώσομαι, ἐν ὑμῖν κριθῆναι.
[1] It was not from any love of litigation I protest by the gods, men of the jury, that I brought this suit against Boeotus, nor was I unaware that it will seem strange to many people that I should bring suit because somebody thought right to have the same name as myself; but it was necessary to have the matter decided in your court, in view of the consequences that must result if I do not get this matter righted.
[2] εἰ μὲν οὖν ἑτέρου τινὸς οὗτος ἔφη πατρὸς εἶναι καὶ μὴ τοῦ ἐμοῦ, περίεργος ἂν εἰκότως ἐδόκουν εἶναι φροντίζων ὅ τι βούλεται καλεῖν οὗτος ἑαυτόν. νῦν δὲ λαχὼν δίκην τῷ πατρὶ τῷ ἐμῷ καὶ μεθ᾽ ἑαυτοῦ κατασκευάσας ἐργαστήριον συκοφαντῶν, Μνησικλέα τε, ὃν ἴσως γιγνώσκετε πάντες, καὶ Μενεκλέα τὸν τὴν Νῖνον ἑλόντ᾽ ἐκεῖνον, καὶ τοιούτους τινάς, ἐδικάζεθ᾽ υἱὸς εἶναι φάσκων ἐκ τῆς Παμφίλου θυγατρὸς καὶ δεινὰ πάσχειν καὶ τῆς πατρίδος ἀποστερεῖσθαι.
[2] If the defendant declared himself the son of another father and not of my own, I should naturally have seemed meddlesome in caring by what name he chose to call himself; but, as it is, he brought suit against my father, and having got up a gang of blackmailers to support him — Mnesicles, whom you all probably know, and that Menecles who secured the conviction of Ninus, and others of the same sort — he went into court, alleging that he was my father’s son by the daughter of Pamphilus, and that he was being outrageously treated, and robbed of his civic rights.
[3] ὁ πατὴρ δέ （πᾶσα γὰρ εἰρήσεται ἡ ἀλήθει᾽, ὦ ἄνδρες δικασταί） ἅμα μὲν φοβούμενος εἰς δικαστήριον εἰσιέναι, μή τις, οἷ᾽ ὑπὸ πολιτευομένου, ἑτέρωθί που λελυπημένος ἐνταυθοῖ ἀπαντήσειεν αὐτῷ, ἅμα δ᾽ ἐξαπατηθεὶς ὑπὸ τῆς τουτουὶ μητρός, ὀμοσάσης αὐτῆς ἦ μήν, ἐὰν ὅρκον αὐτῇ διδῷ περὶ τούτων, μὴ ὀμεῖσθαι, τούτων δὲ πραχθέντων οὐδὲν ἔτ᾽ ἔσεσθαι αὐτοῖς, καὶ μεσεγγυησαμένης ἀργύριον, ἐπὶ τούτοις δίδωσι τὸν ὅρκον.
[3] My father （for the whole truth shall be told you, men of the jury） feared to come into court lest someone, on the ground of having elsewhere received some injury from him in his public life, should confront him here; and at the same time he was deceived by this man’s mother. For she had sworn that if he should tender her an oath in this matter, she would refuse it, and that, when this had been done, all relations between them would be at an end; and she had also had money deposited in the hands of a third party on her behalf; — on these conditions, then, my father tendered her the oath.
[4] ἡ δὲ δεξαμένη, οὐ μόνον τοῦτον, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸν ἀδελφὸν τὸν ἕτερον πρὸς τούτῳ κατωμόσατ᾽ ἐκ τοῦ πατρὸς εἶναι τοῦ ἐμοῦ. ὡς δὲ τοῦτ᾽ ἐποίησεν, εἰσάγειν εἰς τοὺς φράτερας ἦν ἀνάγκη τούτους καὶ λόγος οὐδεὶς ὑπελείπετο. εἰσήγαγεν, ἐποιήσατο, ἵνα τἀν μέσῳ συντέμω, ἐγγράφει τοῖς Ἀπατουρίοις τουτονὶ μὲν Βοιωτὸν εἰς τοὺς φράτερας, τὸν δ᾽ ἕτερον Πάμφιλον: Μαντίθεος δ᾽ ἐνεγεγράμμην ἐγώ.
[4] But she accepted it, and swore that not only the defendant, but his brother too, her other son, was my father’s child. When she had done this it was necessary to enter them among the clansmen, and there was no excuse left. My father did enter them; he adopted them as his children and （to cut short the intervening matters） he enrolled the defendant at the Apaturia as Boeotus on the list of the clansmen, and the other as Pamphilus. But I had already been enrolled as Mantitheus.
[5] συμβάσης δὲ τῷ πατρὶ τῆς τελευτῆς πρὶν τὰς εἰς τοὺς δημότας ἐγγραφὰς γενέσθαι, ἐλθὼν εἰς τοὺς δημότας οὑτοσὶ ἀντὶ Βοιωτοῦ Μαντίθεον ἐνέγραψεν ἑαυτόν. τοῦτο δ᾽ ὅσα βλάπτει ποιῶν πρῶτον μὲν ἐμέ, εἶτα δὲ καὶ ὑμᾶς, ἐγὼ διδάξω, ἐπειδὰν ὧν λέγω παράσχωμαι μάρτυρας.”Μάρτυρες”
[5] My father’s death happened before the entries were made on the register of the demesmen, but the defendant went and enrolled himself on the register as Mantitheus, i
nstead of Boeotus. How great a wrong he did in this — to me, in the first place, but also to you — I shall show, as soon as I have brought forward witnesses to prove my assertions.” Witnesses”
[6] ὃν μὲν τοίνυν τρόπον ἡμᾶς ἐνέγραψεν ὁ πατήρ, ἀκηκόατε τῶν μαρτύρων: ὅτι δ᾽ οὐκ οἰομένου τούτου δεῖν ἐμμένειν, δικαίως καὶ ἀναγκαίως ἔλαχον τὴν δίκην, τοῦτ᾽ ἤδη δείξω. ἐγὼ γὰρ οὐχ οὕτω δήπου σκαιός εἰμ᾽ ἄνθρωπος οὐδ᾽ ἀλόγιστος, ὥστε τῶν μὲν πατρῴων, ἃ πάντ᾽ ἐμὰ ἐγίγνετο, ἐπειδήπερ ἐποιήσατο τούτους ὁ πατήρ, συγκεχωρηκέναι τὸ τρίτον νείμασθαι μέρος καὶ στέργειν ἐπὶ τούτῳ, περὶ δ᾽ ὀνόματος ζυγομαχεῖν, εἰ μὴ τὸ μὲν ἡμᾶς μεταθέσθαι μεγάλην ἀτιμίαν ἔφερε καὶ ἀνανδρίαν, τὸ δὲ ταὐτὸν ἔχειν τοῦτον ἡμῖν ὄνομα διὰ πόλλ᾽ ἀδύνατον ἦν.