Greek Texts & Translations

45.60Read the deposition, and then this challenge.Deposition

The deponents testify that they are friends and associates of Phormio, and that they were present hefore the arbitrator Teisias when the announcement of the award was made in the suit between Apollodorus and Phormio, and that they know that Stephanus filched away the deposition which Apollodorus charges him, with having stolen.

Either depose, or take the oath of disclaimer.Oath of Disclaimer

45.61It was plain enough, men of the jury, that they would do this—take the oath of disclaimer with eagerness. Well, then, that they may at once be convicted of perjury, take, please, this deposition and challenge. Read.Deposition and Challenge

The deponents testify that they were present when Apollodorus challenged Stephanus to give up his attendant slave to be put to the torture concerning the theft of the document, and Apollodorus was ready to write out the conditions on which the torture was to be administered; and that when Apollodorus tendered this challenge, Stephanus refused to give up the slave, but replied to Apollodorus that he might bring suit, if he chose, if he maintained that he was being in any way wronged by him.

45.62Who is there, men of the jury, who, on a charge like that, if he were sure of his innocence, would not have accepted the torture? Then, by refusing the torture, he is convicted of the theft. Now do you think that a man would be ashamed of the reputation of having borne false witness, who did not shrink from being proved a thief? Or that he would hesitate to give false witness at the request of another, when, at no man's bidding, he voluntarily committed a fraud?

45.63Now, men of the jury, while he might justly be made to pay the penalty for all these things, he deserves even more to be punished in your court for the rest of his conduct. Observe the kind of a life he has lived, and judge. For so long as it was the lot of Aristolochus, the banker, to enjoy prosperity, this fellow fawned upon him as he walked beside him, adapting his pace to his, and this is well known to many of you who are present here. 45.64But when Aristolochus was ruined and lost his property, chiefly through having been plundered by this fellow and others of his stamp, Stephanus never stood by the son of Aristolochus, who was overburdened with lawsuits, nor aided him, but it was Apolexis ^note or Solon or anybody else that helped him rather than he. Then he has courted Phormio and become intimate with him, choosing him out of all the Athenians; and he sailed to Byzantium ^note as agent in his interest, when the Byzantines detained Phormio's vessels, and he pleaded his cause against the Calchedonians, ^note and he has thus flagrantly given false witness against me. 45.65A man, then, who is a flatterer of those in prosperity, and who betrays these same men if they fall into adversity; who out of all the host of good and worthy citizens of Athens deals with not a single one on the basis of equality, but willingly fawns upon people like Phormio; who takes no thought whether he is going to injure any of his kinsfolk by these actions, or whether he is going to win an evil reputation in the minds of other men, but thinks only of one thing, how he may enrich himself—ought you not to loathe this man as a common enemy of the whole human race? I certainly think so. 45.66This course of action, involving so great disgrace, he has adopted, men of Athens, with a view to evading his duties to the state and to conceal his wealth, that he may make secret profits by means of the bank, and never serve as choregus or trierarch, or perform any other of the public duties which befit his station. And he has accomplished this object. Here is a proof. Although he has so large an estate that he gave his daughter a marriage portion of one hundred minae, he has never been seen by you to perform any public service whatever, even the very slightest. And yet how much more honorable it would have been to be proved a man of public spirit and one zealous in the performance of his duties to the state, than a flatterer and a bearer of false testimony! But the fellow would do anything to get money.