| Demosthenes, Speeches (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose; rhetoric] [word count] [lemma count] [Dem.]. | ||
| <<Dem. 57.20 | Dem. 57.29 (Greek) | >>Dem. 57.38 |
57.26Now does any one of you imagine that the demesmen would have suffered the alien and non-citizen to hold office among them, and would not have prosecuted him? Well, not a single man prosecuted him, or brought any charge against him. More than that, the demesmen had of necessity to vote on one another, after binding themselves by solemn oaths, when their voting-register was lost during the administration as prefect of the deme of Antiphilus, the father of Eubulides, and they expelled some of their members; but not a man made any motion about my father or brought any such charges against him.
57.27Yet for all men the end of life is death note; and with whatsoever wrongdoings a man may be charged during his lifetime, it is right that for these his children should forever be held accountable; but in matters concerning which no man ever made accusation against him while he lived, is it not outrageous that anyone so wishing should bring his children to trial? If, now, there had been no inquiry into the question, let us grant that the matter has escaped notice; but if inquiry was made and the demesmen reviewed their lists, and no one ever made any accusation, ought I not justly to be regarded as an Athenian so far as my father is concerned, seeing that he died before any dispute regarding his lineage arose?
Attica and that he was never in any place brought under scrutiny as being an alien, but that he found a refuge with these persons as his relatives, and that they both received him and gave him a share of their property as being one of themselves.
57.30Again, it is shown that he was born in a period when, even if he was an Athenian on one side only, he was entitled to citizenship; for he was born before the archonship of Hucleides. note
Athens , Solon was thought to have enacted in this instance so wise and democratic a law that you voted to re-enact it.
To prove that these statements of mine are true, I will call witnesses who depose to these facts also.Witnesses
57.28Furthermore, my father had four sons born of the same mother as myself, and when they died he buried them in our ancestral tomb, which belongs in common to all members of the gens; and no one of these kinsfolk ever made protest or prevented it or brought suit. And yet, who is there who would have permitted persons having no connection with the family to be placed in the ancestral tomb?
To prove that these statements of mine also are true, take the deposition.Deposition
57.29With regard to my father, then, these are the grounds for my assertion that he was an Athenian; and I have brought forward as witnesses persons whom my opponents themselves have voted to be citizens, and who depose that my father was their own cousin. It is shown that he lived such and such a number of years here in
With regard to my mother (for they make her too a reproach against me) I will speak, and will call witnesses to support my statements. And yet, men of
Take first the law of Solon and read it, please.Law
Law
It is fitting that you, then, acting in defence of the laws, should hold, not that those who ply a trade are aliens, but that those who bring malicious and baseless suits are scoundrels. For, Eubulides, there is another law too regarding idleness to which you, who denounce us who are traders, are amenable.
57.33But we are at the present time involved in a misfortune so great that, whereas it is permitted to this fellow to make slanderous statements which have nothing to do with the case, and to avail himself of every possible means to prevent my obtaining my rights in any particular, you will perhaps rebuke me, if I tell you what sort of a trade this man plies as he goes about the city; and you would do so with good reason, for what need is there for me to tell you what you know? But consider. It seems to me certainly that our carrying on a trade in the market-place is the strongest proof that this fellow is bringing against us charges which are false. 57.34He asserts that my mother is a vendor of ribbons and that everybody has seen her. Well then, there ought to be many to testify from knowledge who she is, and not from hearsay only. If she was an alien, they ought to have examined the market-tolls, and have shown whether she paid the alien's tax, and from what country she came; and if she were a slave, then the one who had bought her should by all means have come to give evidence against her, or the one who sold her, or in default of them, someone else to prove that she had lived as a slave or had been set free. But as it is, Eubulides has proved not one of these things; he has merely, in my opinion, indulged in every form of abuse. For this is what a blackmailer is; he makes all manner of charges, but proves nothing.
| Demosthenes, Speeches (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose; rhetoric] [word count] [lemma count] [Dem.]. | ||
| <<Dem. 57.20 | Dem. 57.29 (Greek) | >>Dem. 57.38 |
