Greek Texts & Translations

55.1There is after all, men of Athens, nothing more vexatious than to have a neighbor who is base and covetous; the very thing which has fallen to my lot. For Callicles, having set his heart on my land, has pestered me with malicious and baseless litigation: in the first place he suborned his cousin to claim my property, 55.2but the claim was proved manifestly false, and I got the better of that intrigue; then, again, he secured two awards against me for default, one in an action brought in his own name for one thousand drachmae, and another in an action which he persuaded his brother Callicrates, who is here in court, to bring. I beg you all to listen to me, and to give me your attention, not because I am going to show myself an able speaker, but in order that you may learn from the facts themselves, that I am manifestly the victim of a malicious and baseless suit.

55.3A single plea, men of Athens, I bring before you to answer all the arguments of these men, a just one. My father built the wall around this land almost before I was born, while Callippides, the father of these men was still living, and was my father's neighbor (and of course he knew the facts better than these men do), and when, moreover, Callicles was already a grown man, and was living at Athens; 55.4and my father lived on more than fifteen years longer, and their father as many. In all these years no one ever came to object or make complaint (and yet of course it often rained then, just as it does now); no one made any opposition at the start, as he would have done, if my father by walling in his land had caused injury to anyone; nor did anyone forbid him, or protest against his action. 55.5And yet, Callicles, when you saw that the watercourse was being dammed, you people might, I suppose, have gone at once to my father and complained angrily, and said to him, “Teisias, what is this that you are doing? Are you damming the watercourse? Why, then the water will burst through on to our land.” In that case, if he had seen fit to desist, you and I would be having no quarrel with one another; or, if he paid no heed, and any such mischief resulted, you would have been able to avail yourself of those who were present as witnesses. 55.6And, by heaven, you ought to have satisfied all men that there was a watercourse, that you might have shown, not by your mere statement, as is the case now, but on a basis of fact, that my father was guilty of wrongdoing. Yet no one of these men ever thought of doing any such thing. For, had you done this, you would not have got an award for default against me, as you now have, nor would you have gained anything by your malicious charges; 55.7for if you had at that time brought a witness and appealed to his testimony, he would now have proved from his own knowledge precisely how the several matters stood, and would have refuted these men who are so glib with their testimony. But, I fancy, you have all come to despise one so young as I am, and so inexperienced in affairs. But, men of Athens, I adduce their own acts as the strongest evidence against them all; for how is it that not one of them ever protested, or lodged a complaint, or even uttered a word of censure, but they were content to submit to this injury?

55.8Well, I think that what I have said is by itself a sufficient answer to their shameless claims; but that you may be assured, men of Athens, on other grounds as well that my father committed no wrong in walling in the land, and that these men have uttered nothing but falsehoods, I shall try to explain to you even more clearly. 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.