| Demosthenes, Speeches (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose; rhetoric] [word count] [lemma count] [Dem.]. | ||
| <<Dem. 53.8 | Dem. 53.17 (Greek) | >>Dem. 53.26 |
53.14Accordingly he first conspired against me with some persons with whom I was at law, and bound himself by an oath to support them; then, after my action against them had commenced, he divulged to them my arguments, with which he was acquainted, and he entered me as a debtor to the public treasury to the amount of six hundred and ten drachmae, as a fine for non-production of property (although no citation had been served upon me), having got the case brought on through the agency of Lycidas the miller. As witnesses against me to attest the citation, he entered the name of his own brother, this Arethusius to whom these slaves belong, and another person; and they were prepared, in the event of my bringing to a preliminary hearing the suits which I had entered against my relatives note who were wronging me, to lay an information against me, as being a debtor to the treasury, and throw me into prison.
53.15And more than all this, he who had secured a judgement against me for six hundred and ten drachmae, when no citation had been served upon me, and had entered the names of false witnesses to the citation, made a forcible entry into my house and carried off all the furniture to the value of more than twenty minae; he did not leave a thing. I thought it my duty to avenge myself, and after paying the debt to the treasury on hearing of the fine, I was proceeding to indict the one who admitted that he had cited me to appear (that is, Arethusius), on a charge of false citation, as the law directs. He, however, came to my farm by night, cut off all the choice fruit-grafts that were there, and the tree-vines as well, and broke down the nursery-beds of olive trees set in rows round about, making worse havoc than enemies in war would have done.
53.16More than this, as they were neighbors and my farm adjoined theirs, they sent into it in the daytime a young boy who was an Athenian, and put him up to plucking off the flowers from my rose-bed, in order that, if I caught him and in a fit of anger put him in bonds or struck him, assuming him to be a slave, they might bring against me an indictment for assault.
Cerdon he reared from early childhood; and to prove that he belonged to Arethusius, I shall bring before you witnesses who know the fact.Cerdon ever worked, and that he used, as being his master, to receive compensation or give it, whenever Cerdon wrought any damage.
When they failed in this, and I merely called witnesses to observe the wrong done me without committing any offence against them myself, they played against me the most dastardly trick.
53.17When I had now brought my indictment of him for false citation to the preliminary examination and was about to bring the case into court, Nicostratus lay in wait for me near the stone quarries, as I was coming back late from Peiraeus, and struck me with his fist and seizing me around the waist was on the point of throwing me into the quarries, had not some people come up and, hearing my cries, run to my assistance. A few days later, I came into court on a day that was divided up among a number of cases, and proving that he had falsely attested the citation and was guilty of all the other crimes which I have mentioned, I won a conviction. 53.18When it came to fixing the penalty, the jurymen wished to impose a sentence of death upon him, but I begged them to do nothing like that on a prosecution brought by me, and I agreed to the fine of a talent which these men themselves proposed,—not that I wished to save Arethusius from the death penalty (for he deserved death on account of the wrongs which he had committed against me), but that I, Pasion's son, made a citizen by a decree of the people, might not be said to have caused the death of any Athenian.To prove that I have told you the truth, I shall call before you witnesses to all these facts.Witnesses
53.19The wrongs done to me by these people, men of the jury, which led me to file the information, I have made clear to you. That these slaves are the property of Arethusius, and that I listed them in the inventory because they formed a part of his estate, I shall proceed to show you.
Witnesses
53.20I shall also bring before you witnesses to prove that Arethusius got the wages on his account from all the persons with whom
Witnesses
As for Manes: Arethusius lent some money to Archepolis of Peiraeus, and when Archepolis was unable to pay either the interest or the principal in full, he made over to him Manes in settlement.
To prove that I am speaking the truth, I shall bring before you witnesses to establish these statements.Witnesses
53.21Furthermore, from the following facts also you will see that the men belong to Arethusius. For whenever they bought up the produce of an orchard, or hired themselves out to reap a harvest, or undertook any other piece of farming work, it was Arethusius who made the purchase or paid the wages on their behalf.
To prove that I am speaking the truth, I shall bring before you witnesses to establish these statements also.Witnesses
| Demosthenes, Speeches (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose; rhetoric] [word count] [lemma count] [Dem.]. | ||
| <<Dem. 53.8 | Dem. 53.17 (Greek) | >>Dem. 53.26 |
