| Demosthenes, Speeches (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose; rhetoric] [word count] [lemma count] [Dem.]. | ||
| <<Dem. 52.7 | Dem. 52.18 (Greek) | >>Dem. 52.29 |
52.14he brought an action against him, not indeed an action for money, like the present one, but an action for damages, declaring that my father had wrought him injury by paying to Cephisiades the money which Lycon, the Heracleote, had left in his keeping after having promised not to pay it without the plaintiff's consent. After he had brought suit, he took back the papers from the public arbitrator, and challenged my father to refer the case to Lysitheides, a friend of Callippus himself and of Isocrates and Aphareus, note and an acquaintance of my father.
52.15My father gave his consent, and during his lifetime Lysitheides despite his intimacy with these men did not venture to commit any wrong against us. And yet some of the plaintiff's friends are so lacking in shame, that they had the audacity to depose that Callippus challenged my father to take an oath, and that my father refused to swear before Lysitheides; and they imagine that they can convince you that in that case Lysitheides, a friend of Callippus and the one acting as arbitrator in the case, would have refrained from making an immediate award against my father, especially since my father thus refused to make himself the judge of his own case. note
Eleusis and his brother Thrasyllus the sum of forty minae for a voyage to Acê note but, when they changed their minds and decided not to risk the voyage to that point, Lycon, after making some complaints against Megacleides regarding the interest, and believing that he had been deceived, quarrelled with him and went to law for the purpose of recovering his loan.
52.21The proceedings were prolonged, as so large a sum was at stake, yet Lycon never at any time called in Callippus for consultation; he sought the aid of Archebiades and the friends of Archebiades, and it was Archebiades who brought about a settlement between them.
52.16That I am telling the truth and that these men are lying, is proved, I claim, by the very fact that Lysitheides would have made the award against my father, and that I should now be defendant in an ejectment suit, and not in an action for money; and, besides this, I shall bring before you as witnesses the persons who were present on the various occasions when I met the plaintiff before Lysitheides.
Witnesses
52.17That he did not challenge my father to an oath at that time, but now maligns him after his death, and brings forward his own intimates who recklessly bear false witness against me, you can easily see from the circumstantial evidence and from the deposition. And that I was ready on my father's behalf to take the oath which the law prescribes when an heir is sued in court on a charge brought against one who is dead,— 52.18that, namely, I believed that my father never agreed to pay the plaintiff the money which Lycon left, and that the plaintiff was not introduced to my father by Lycon; and Phormion was ready to swear that in very truth he had himself reckoned up the amount with Lycon in the presence of Archebiades, and that instructions were given him to pay the money to Cephisiades, and that Archebiades had identified Cephisiades for him; 52.19also that when Callippus came for the first time to the bank, saying that Lycon was dead and that he, Callippus, claimed the right to inspect the books to see whether the Heracleote had left any money, he, Phormion, had at once shown him the books, and that Callippus, after seeing the entry that payment was to be made to Cephisiades, went away in silence, without filing any counterclaim or making any protest to him about the payment of the money—in proof of all these matters the clerk shall read you the depositions which establish both facts, and also the law.
Depositions
Law
52.20Now, men of the jury, I shall show you that Lycon had no dealings with Callippus; for I think this will be something to confound the impudent assurance of this man, who asserts that this money was given to him by Lycon as a present. Lycon had lent to Megacleides of
To prove that I am speaking the truth, I shall bring before you Megacleides himself as a witness to these facts.Deposition
52.22You see, men of the jury, how intimate Lycon was with Callippus. He neither called him in for consultation about his affairs, nor did he ever put up at the home of Callippus as a guest; and this very fact is the one thing to which the plaintiff's friends have not ventured to depose, that, namely, he ever did put up at his house; for they knew well that, if they told any such lie as this, they would at once be convicted by the slaves when these were put to the torture. 52.23But I wish to mention to you a piece of circumstantial evidence so striking, that it will, I think, convince you that Callippus has uttered nothing but a pack of lies. If Lycon, men of the jury, had been as fond of the plaintiff and as intimate with him as the plaintiff claims, and had wished to give him this money as a present in the event of anything happening to himself, 52.24would it not have been better to have left the money outright in the custody of Callippus, in which case, if he returned safe, he would have recovered it duly and justly from one who was his friend and his proxenos, and, if anything had happened to him, he would have given the money outright as he purposed? Would this, I ask, not have been better than leaving it in the bank? For my part, I think the former course would have been fairer and more highminded. However, he is seen to have done nothing of the kind, so you must regard this as presumptive evidence; no; he gave written and oral instructions that it was to Cephisiades that the money was to be paid.
| Demosthenes, Speeches (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose; rhetoric] [word count] [lemma count] [Dem.]. | ||
| <<Dem. 52.7 | Dem. 52.18 (Greek) | >>Dem. 52.29 |
