False witness
idea · 2 works · 2 mentions · 4 anchored passages
false witness · bearing false testimony · convict...of false witness · the wretch who gives false testimony
in the texts
Against Aphobus III
The Athenian legal action and concept of giving false testimony (pseudomartyria), the charge at issue in the present suit.
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.
Yet, if they are not poor, nor enemies of the plaintiff, nor friends of mine, how can it be right to suspect them of bearing false witness?
Not enmity against my adversary, that is plain;
Nāradasmṛti
The legal and moral category of a witness who knowingly testifies untruthfully, subject to severe temporal and cosmic punishment.
Naked, shaven, with a skull for a begging bowl, hungry and thirsty, the wretch who gives false testimony shall go to his enemy's house.
Confined in the city, hungry at the outer gate, he shall see his enemies again and again, who gives false testimony.
He who, having declared his testimony to others, then denies it, should be punished more severely, for he is worse than a false witness.