Greek Texts & Translations

37.25Read what follows.Complaint

And after I had become a debtor to the state, having stationed his slave Antigenes in my mining property at Thrasyllus, ^note in full control of my works, although I forbade him . . .

Stop reading. In all this he will again be convicted of falsehood by the facts themselves; for he has written in the complaint that I stationed the slave and that he forbade me. But this was impossible in the case of one who was not in the country. Neither did I station anyone, seeing that I was in Pontus, nor did he forbid a man who was not in Athens. 37.26How could he? What was it, then, that forced him to make this statement? I fancy that Evergus, at the time he made the mistakes ^note for which he has paid the penalty, being on friendly terms with me and well known, took the slave from my house and stationed him at his own works to keep guard. If, then, he had written the truth, it would have been ridiculous. For, if Evergus stationed the slave there, wherein do I wrong you? It was to avoid this absurdity that he was compelled to write as he did, that his charge might be directed against me.

Read what follows.Complaint

And then having persuaded my slaves to sit in the foundry ^note to my prejudice.

37.27This is out-and-out impudence. Not only from my challenging him to give up these slaves for torture and from his refusing to do so, but from every circumstance of the case its falsehood is manifest. Why, pray, should I have induced them to do this? That, forsooth, I might get possession of them. But when the option was given me either to keep the property or to recover my money, I chose to recover my money; and of this you have heard the evidence.

Nevertheless, read the challenge.Challenge

37.28Although he did not accept the challenge, but declined it, see what a charge he makes immediately thereafter.

Read what comes next.Complaint

And having reduced the silver-ore which my slaves had dug, and keeping the silver smelted from that ore.

Again, how could this have been done by me when I was not here?—things, too, for which you won a judgement against Evergus?

37.29Read the further charges.Complaint

And having sold my mining property and the slaves, contrary to the agreement which he had made with me.

Stop reading. This far outdoes all the rest. For in the first place he says, “contrary to the agreement which he had made with me.” What agreement is this? We leased our own property to this man, at a rent equal to the interest on the loan; that was all. It was Mnesicles who sold it to us, in the presence of the plaintiff and at his request. 37.30Afterwards in the same way we sold the property to others on the same terms upon which we had ourselves bought it, and the plaintiff not only urged but actually implored us to do so; for no one was willing to accept him as the vendor. What, then, does the agreement to lease it have to do with the matter? Why, most worthless of men, did you insert that clause?

However, to prove that we resold the property at your request, and on the same terms as those upon which we ourselves bought it, read the deposition.Deposition

37.31You are yourself also a witness to this; for what we purchased for one hundred and five minae, this you afterward sold for three talents and twenty-six hundred drachmae. And yet who, if he had you ^note as one to complete a final sale, would have given a single drachma?

To prove that I speak the truth in this, call, please, the witnesses who establish the facts.Witnesses

37.32He has, then, received the sum which he agreed to take for his property,—he even begged me that I should assume the position of vendor for the sum which I had advanced—yet this same man sues me for two talents more. And the rest of the charges are even more outrageous.

Read, please, the remainder of the complaint.Complaint

37.33Here he brings against me in one mass a host of dreadful charges; for he accuses me of assault and battery, outrage, and of violent wrongs even against heiresses. ^note But for each of these wrongdoings actions are separate; they do not come before the same magistrates and they are not for the recovery of the same penalties. Assault and battery and crimes of violence come before the Forty ^note; cases of outrage before the Thesmothetae; and all crimes against heiresses before the Archon. ^note And the laws grant the filing of pleas to bar action also in case of charges brought before magistrates who have not due competency.

Read them this law.Law