Aphobus

Being sorely at a loss to explain any of these matters before the arbitrator, and being convicted on each point, just as he is now before you, he had the audacity to make an outrageously false statement, to the effect that my father left me four talents buried in the ground, and that he had put my mother in charge of them.

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.

They confess to have received from my estate, Aphobus one hundred and eight minae (besides what I shall now show to be in his hands);

To all this Aphobus, the most impious of men, has paid no heed, although these were the terms upon which he became possessed of my estate.

For he declared that my grandfather was a debtor to the state, and that for this reason my father would not have the property let, for fear of the risks he would run.

while this fellow, if you make him master of my goods, will do nothing of the kind.

For although my father, men of the jury, wrote a will containing an inventory of all that he left, with instructions for letting the property, this will Aphobus never gave up to me, lest I should learn from it the value of the estate, and admitted possessing only those items which were so well known that he could not deny that he had them.

But Aphobus knew better than anyone else that the slave had borne true testimony, and therefore he declined the test.

I know that the plaintiff has instituted this suit, not because he believes he can convict anyone of having borne false witness against him, but because he thinks that the large amount of damages which he was condemned to pay will give rise to a feeling of prejudice against me, and of compassion toward himself.

When I saw, men of the jury, that after the woman’s divorce had been registered with the archon, and after the defendant’s declaration that he had taken a mortgage on the farm to secure her marriage-portion, Aphobus continued to hold and till the land just as before, and to dwell with his wife, I knew well that all this was fiction and a pretence to cover up the facts.

Nor are these the only proofs which make it easy to see that Aphobus continued to live with his wife and to possess the land up to the time when the suit was begun;

When I had won my suit against Aphobus in the matter of the guardianship and he still refused to make any just settlement, Onetor did not even try to settle our dispute, but, alleging that his sister had been divorced, and that he was unable to get back her marriage-portion, which he had paid (although he had not paid it, and it was even then in his possession), declared that he had taken a mortga …

Yet observe that this is a proof not only that his wife was living with Aphobus and that Onetor was on intimate terms with him, but also that he had not paid the dowry.

Was it not ten full years before he became your brother-in-law that Aphobus took possession of my estate for which judgement has been rendered against him?

For the fellow, men of the jury, when he first determined to lay claim to the property of Aphobus, declared that he had paid as the marriage-portion, not a talent, as he now alleges, but eighty minae;