Demosthenes, Speeches (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose; rhetoric] [word count] [lemma count] [Dem.]. | ||
<<Dem. 45.8 | Dem. 45.19 (Greek) | >>Dem. 45.29 |
However, that you may know that I am speaking the truth in this, take the deposition of Cephisophon. Cephisophon, son of Cephalion, of Aphidna, note deposes that a document was left him by his father, on which was inscribed “the will of Pasio.”Deposition
45.20It was a simple thing, men of the jury, for the one who gave this testimony to add “and this is the document which the deponent exhibits,” and to put the document into the box. But, I presume, he thought that this falsehood would deserve your indignation, and that you would punish him for it, whereas to testify that a document had been bequeathed to him was a trifling matter and one of no consequence. And yet it is this very thing that makes the whole matter clear, and proves that they have concocted it. 45.21For if the inscription on the will had been “the property of Pasio and Phormio” or “in the matter of Phormio,” or something of that sort, he would naturally have kept it for him; but if, as he has testified, the inscription was “the will of Pasio,” I should certainly have appropriated it, knowing that I was about to go to law, and knowing further that, if its contents were as represented, it was prejudicial to my interests; for I was the heir, and if the will was my father's, it belonged to me, as did also all the rest of my father's estate. 45.22Well then, by its having been produced to Phormio, by its having been inscribed “the will of Pasio,” and yet ignored by me, it is proved that the will is a forgery and that the testimony of Cephisophon is false. But no more of Cephisophon; it is not with him that I have to do at present, and he has given no testimony as to the contents of the will. 45.23And yet, men of Athens, I would have you consider how strong a proof this also is that these men have given false testimony. For when the witness who stated that he had the document in his own possession did not dare to say that the one produced by Phormio was a copy of the one in his own keeping; and when these men cannot state that they were present in the first instance or that they saw the document opened before the arbitrator, but have themselves actually deposed that I refused to open it, to have testified now that the one is a copy of the other, is not this to have accused themselves of falsifying?
45.24More than all this, men of Athens, any man by examining the wording of the deposition can see that it is nothing but a contrivance of theirs to the end that rightly or wrongly it may appear that my father made this will.
But take the deposition itself, and read, stopping wherever I bid you, that from its own wording I may prove my point. . . . depose that they were present before the arbitrator Teisias, when Phormio challenged Apollodorus, if he declared that the document was not a copy of the will of Pasio . . .Deposition
Read the deposition again from the beginning. . . . depose that they were present before the arbitrator Teisias . . .Deposition
We do depose; for we were present. Read on. . . . when Phormio challenged Apollodorus . . .
This, too, they might properly have stated, assuming that he really tendered the challenge. . . . if he declared that the document was not a copy of the will of Pasio . . .
Demosthenes, Speeches (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose; rhetoric] [word count] [lemma count] [Dem.]. | ||
<<Dem. 45.8 | Dem. 45.19 (Greek) | >>Dem. 45.29 |