| Demosthenes, Speeches (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose; rhetoric] [word count] [lemma count] [Dem.]. | ||
| <<Dem. 55.1 | Dem. 55.13 (Greek) | >>Dem. 55.23 |
55.9That the land is our private property is admitted by these men themselves, and this being the case, men of Athens , if you could see the place, you would know at once that their suit is groundless. For this reason I wanted to refer the case to impartial persons who know the locality, but these men refused, although they now try to maintain that they wished it. This, too, will be made clear to you all in a moment; but give close heed, men of Athens , I beg you in the name of Zeus and the gods!
55.10For the space between my property and theirs is a road, and as a hilly country encircles them, unluckily for the farms, the water that flows down runs, as it happens, partly into the road, and partly on to the farms. And in particular, that which pours into the road, whenever it has free course, flows down along the road, but when there is any stoppage, then it of necessity overflows upon the farms.
55.11Now this particular piece of land, as it happened, was inundated after a heavy downpour had occurred. As a result of neglect, when my father was not yet in possession of the land, but a man held it who utterly disliked the neighborhood, and preferred to live in the city, the water overflowed two or three times, wrought damage to the land, and was more and more making itself a path. For this reason my father, when he saw it (so I am informed by those acquainted with the circumstances), inasmuch as the neighbors also began to encroach upon the property and walk across it, built around it this enclosing wall.
55.12To prove that I am speaking the truth in this, I shall bring before you as witnesses those who know the facts, and circumstantial evidence, men of Athens , far stronger than any testimony. Callicles says that I am doing him an injury by having walled off the watercourse; but I shall show that this is private land and no watercourse.
55.13If it were not admitted to be our private property, we should perhaps be guilty of this wrongdoing, if we had fenced off a piece of public land; but as it is, they do not dispute this, and on the land there are trees planted, vines and figs. Yet who would think of planting these in a watercourse? Nobody, surely. Again, who would think of burying his own ancestors there? No one, I think, would do this either.
55.14Well, both these things have been done. For not only were the trees planted before my father built the wall, but the tombs are old, and were built before we acquired the property. Yet, since this is the case, what stronger argument could there be, men of Athens ? The facts afford manifest proof.
Athens , you hear the depositions. Do they not appear to you to testify expressly that it is a place full of trees, and that it contains some tombs and other things which are to be found in most private pieces of land? Do they not prove also that the land was walled in during the lifetime of their father without opposition being made by these men or any other of the neighbors?
Now please take all these depositions, and read them.Depositions
55.15Men of
55.16It is worth your while, men of the jury, to hear some remarks also about the other statements made by Callicles. And first, consider whether any one of you has ever seen or heard of a watercourse existing by the side of a road. I think that in the whole country there is not a single one. For what could induce any man to make a channel through his private lands for water which would otherwise have gone rushing down a public road? 55.17And what one of you, whether in the country or the city would allow water passing along the highway to flow into his farm or his house? On the contrary, when it forces its way in, is it not our habit to dam or wall it off? But the plaintiff demands of me that I let the water from the road flow into my land, and, when it has passed beyond his, turn it back again into the road. Well then, the neighbor who farms the land next to his will make complaint; for it is plain that they too will have the same right to protest that the plaintiff has. 55.18But surely, if I am afraid to divert the water into the road, I should be a rash man indeed, if I were to turn it into land. For when I am being sued for penalty because the water flowing from the road spread over the plaintiff's land, what treatment in heaven's name must I expect to meet at the hands of those who suffer damage from the water overflowing from my own land? But if, once I have got the water on my property, I am not to be allowed to drain it off either into the road or onto private land, men of the jury, what course in the name of the gods remains for me? I take it, Callicles will not force me to drink it all up! 55.19Well then, after suffering these annoyances at their hands and many other grievous ones as well, I must be content, not indeed to win my suit, but to escape paying a further penalty! If, men of the jury, there had been a watercourse below me to receive the water, I should perhaps have been wrong in not letting it in on my land, just as on certain other farms there are recognized watercourses in which the first landowners let the water flow (as they do the gutter-drains from the houses), and others again receive it from them in like manner. But on the land in question no one gives the water over to me or receives it from me. How, then, can it be a watercourse?
| Demosthenes, Speeches (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose; rhetoric] [word count] [lemma count] [Dem.]. | ||
| <<Dem. 55.1 | Dem. 55.13 (Greek) | >>Dem. 55.23 |
