speaker

But I, most noble Emperor, have associated with you, and am perhaps experienced in your nature as much as any man, knowing that you delight in truth and frank speech rather than in flattery and deceit.

If, formerly, when all men thought it necessary to lie out of fear, I alone dared to tell the truth, and that at peril of my life, but now, when all are free to speak the truth, I lie, with no danger present, then I should know neither the occasion for frank speech nor that for flattery.

But that I may neither incur the charge of flattery from those who wish to slander me, nor you the charge of wishing to be praised to your face, I shall make my discourse concerning the good king—what sort of man he ought to be, and what the difference is between him and the one who pretends to be a ruler,

Rest assured that I should never have come to Athens, had such a crime been on my conscience.

In a trial for murder, even if judgement is wrongly given against the defendant, justice and the facts cannot prevail against that decision.

Acquit me, then, today and at the trial for murder the prosecution shall take the traditional oath before accusing me:

'You did not pass over even that reproach of Antiochus, Lucullus (nor was it strange, for it is among the most famous), by which Antiochus used to say that Philo was most of all confounded.

there follows that overthrow of all life which you, Lucullus, were mentioning.

'that it pleases the Academics that there are such dissimilarities of things that some seem probable and others the contrary;

Now I, as it happened, was a trierarch and overseer of the navy-board, and Demochares of Paeania was in the navy-board, and was indebted to the state for the equipment of a ship in conjunction with Theophemus here, for he had served as joint trierarch with him.

When this decree had been passed, the magistrates chose by lot those who owed the ship’s equipment to the state and handed over their names, and the overseers of the dockyards passed on the list to the trierarchs who were then about to sail, and to the overseers of the navy-boards.

It is in my opinion, men of the jury, an admirable provision of the laws that they allow another chance after a trial by means of proceedings for false testimony, in order that, if anyone by bringing forward witnesses testifying to what is false or by citing challenges which were never tendered or depositions made contrary to law, has deceived the jury, he may gain nothing by it, but the one who h …

I, then, have now told you part of what I judge to be best, and the rest I shall counsel you throughout all your life.

This very thing, then, is what I have come to advise:

1. There are many things, my children, that prompt me to advise you of what I judge to be best, and what I am persuaded will profit you if you choose it. For both my time of life, and my long training in many affairs, and indeed my full share of that change which teaches all things by turns, have made me experienced in human matters, so that I can point out to those just setting out upon life, as …

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.

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.

And now, in seeking to recover what is mine, I have come into the greatest peril;

For Callicles, having set his heart on my land, has pestered me with malicious and baseless litigation:

no one made any opposition at the start, as he would have done, if my father by walling in his land had caused injury to anyone;

Do not, then, men of the jury, I beg you in the name of Zeus and the gods, leave me as the prey of these men, when I have done no wrong.

I beg you, men of the jury, to come to the aid of my father and myself, if our pleading shall seem just, and not suffer men who are poor and without influence to be crushed by the lawless men marshalled against us.

My father here (for the truth shall be told you) comes into court with manifest signs that he is, as you are all aware, a poor man, and that he knows nothing of pleading in court;

So, if you like, we claim the inheritance as kinsmen of Archiades, or, if you like it better, as kinsmen of Leocrates;

I verily am defending the interests of those relatives who are dead, and the laws established to protect them, and I beg of you also, men of the jury, I beseech you, I implore you, do not shut your eyes to the outrage done to this boy by the defendants, nor suffer his ancestors to be treated with even greater indignity than before, as will be the case, if these men accomplish what they desire.

I myself, when I had been awarded the hand of the mother of this boy, and four sons and one daughter had been born to me, gave them, men of the jury, the following names:

I for my part, men of the jury, am defending to the full extent of my power the interest of those dead relatives, but it is not an easy task to contend against the intrigues of these men.

and for the defendant Olympiodorus to enter suit for the whole estate as he had done before, and conduct his case by himself, and for me to enter suit for a half, since my brother Callippus claimed the half only;

After this we drew up written articles of agreement regarding all matters involved, and swore solemn oaths to one another that we would in very truth divide fairly and honestly all the visible property that there was, and that neither of us would in any respect take advantage of the other in regard to Comon’s estate;

and when this claim was stricken out I necessarily had to abandon my claim to half the estate.

For my part, men of the jury, I should be most happy to see myself enjoying the material prosperity which was mine before, and remaining in the group of the Three Hundred, but since, partly through having to share in the misfortunes common to all those who are engaged in mining works, and partly through having met heavy reverses in my private business, I have lost my estate, and now at the last mu …

and he complains of the oath which I took before filing the inventory, asserting that I undertook to report all the rest of my property except that in the mining-works;

I therefore beg of you all, men of the jury, that, if I prove that Phaenippus here has both transgressed the just provisions of the law and is a richer man than myself, you will succor me, and appoint him in the list of the Three Hundred in my stead;

Because I did not receive the whole of my wife’s portion, but a thousand drachmae were left unpaid with the understanding that I should receive them on the death of Polyeuctus;

For when I am able to produce both laws and witnesses in support of everything that I have said, and also admissions made in my favor by my opponent himself, what further need can there be for a long argument?

and that at his death he directed by his will that pillars should be set up on the house in my favor for a thousand drachmae due on account of my wife’s portion.

for I am well aware that for you who are citizens by birth it is sufficient to perform public services as the laws require;

I bid adieu to this fellow and appeal to those to whom my father left me as my helpers and friends—to you, men of the jury.

Have you, then, a man who ought to have been publicly put to death for what you have done, after saving your skin, after securing for yourself a city with our money, and after being allowed to beget children as brothers to your own masters—have you entered a special plea that our action for the sums claimed from you is inadmissible?

But since you are now considering matters on which these speakers have often spoken before, I feel that, even if the first to rise, I may reasonably appear to be speaking after them.

As for me, I should certainly have wished that, just as I know it pays you to listen to the speaker who makes the best proposals, so I might be sure it would also pay the one who made them;

In this they are wrong nor do they reflect in their own minds that, since it is the experience of all that over a long period many plans have worked out happily and some of them, because of the times, quite contrary to their promise, if some speaker cites the one kind and passes over the other, he will unconsciously be doing the easiest thing in the world, deceiving himself.

But the fact is, the people appointed that the treasurer should give the crown to the one who first got his trireme ready for sea;

And yet, how can it be fair, when they manned their ship later than I did mine, for them now to receive the crown as having been the first to get ready?

for mine was manned before they had so much as touched theirs, and you all saw the ship being tested.

Personally, gentlemen of the jury, as I was just saying to those seated beside me, I am surprised that you are not tired by now of this kind of impeachment.

Did you not call Lycurgus to join you in the prosecution, a speaker who is the equal of any in the city and who has the reputation among these gentlemen of being sound and honorable?

Dispense with the arguments of us all let the impeachment and the laws govern your decision and give whatever verdict you consider to be just and in keeping with your oath.

for they are both able speakers and clever plotters, so that they have often pleaded before you on behalf of others, whereas I, so far from speaking on behalf of another, have never before pleaded on my own behalf in a private suit, and therefore deserve great indulgence at your hands.

I was obliged, it is true, owing to the impossibility of obtaining justice against my opponents, to add to my petition at the preliminary inquiry that my mother was sister of Aristarchus (II.

that the father of Cyronides and of my mother left this estate to Demochares;

for one may with impunity neglect what is advised rather than what is commanded, because the one comes from counsel and is set before the will, while the other descends from authority and is bound to necessity:

I have judged it fitting, my dearest fellow-servant in the Lord, to provide now, in advance, for what you should pursue after my departure from this world, should I be called before you, and to entrust to your faithfulness, so that, having been provided for, you may observe it.

even now I would find something to flow from these eyes of mine, already drained by weeping for my own household—if only it would do you any good.

Either let his justice perceive it to be good, or let his clemency make it good;

of these his clemency—which holds the first place among his virtues—promises that I too shall be a spectator.