Greek Texts & Translations

However, read them the law itself; for it will explain the matter more clearly than I can do.Law

58.12You hear, men of the jury, the penalties which the laws ordain for the one who brings baseless charges. Well then, if Micon has done any of the acts which Theocrines in his denunciation charged him with doing, and Theocrines has compromised the matter and come to terms with the man, he is guilty of a crime against you all, and would justly be fined a thousand drachmae. But if Micon sailed to a port to which he might legitimately sail (let the defendant choose either alternative), and Theocrines none the less denounces and summons him, he is bringing a baseless charge against the ship-owners, and has violated not only the former law, but also the one just read, and has convicted himself of dishonesty both in his words and in his actions. 58.13For what man would have desisted from an honest course of action by which he would have received the share of the money which the law allows, and have rather chosen to make a trifling gain by a compromise and render himself amenable to these laws, when, as I said just now, he might have received half the sum involved in the denunciation? No man in the world would have done so, men of the jury, unless he were conscious that he was bringing baseless and malicious charges.

58.14These are two laws, then, which this man, who indicts others for illegal acts, has himself violated. There is a third law also, which enacts that any one of the citizens who pleases may lodge criminal informations against those who owe money to the treasury, or if any man is indebted to Athena or to any one of the rest of the gods, or of the eponymous heroes. ^note In this class the defendant will be shown to belong; for he owes, and has not paid, seven hundred drachmae, which he was condemned at the audit to pay to the eponymus of his tribe.

Read that part of the law.Law

58.15Stop reading. Do you hear, fellow, what it says?—“or to any one of the eponymous heroes.”

Read the deposition of the members of the tribe.Deposition

It is likely indeed, men of the jury, that the defendant would have regard for few persons and for those who spend most of their time at sea, as Micon does, when he felt neither fear nor shame in the presence of his tribesmen, in the first place, when administering their public business in such a way that they convicted him of embezzlement, and in the second place, although he had been fined and knew well that the laws forbade him to prefer indictments until he should pay, when defying the laws and holding that, while other state-debtors could exercise no public function, he had the right to be superior to the laws. 58.16He will, to be sure, assert that it is his grandfather and not himself who is entered on the register as a debtor to the state, and in regard to this will talk at length to prove that it is he. I myself cannot say with certainty which of the two it is; but supposing it to be as he will claim, I think that you will be under far greater obligation to convict him, if this is the case. 58.17For if his grandfather was a state-debtor long ago and the law ordains that he be his grandfather's heir—if, though he long ago lost the right to prefer indictments, he still continued to prefer them; and if he is going to assume that he ought to be acquitted just because he is a scoundrel of the third generation, there will be no justice in his plea, men of the jury.

To prove that it is admitted by Theocrines himself that this debt is his own and that he arranged with the members of the tribe on behalf of his brother and himself for its payment, and that no jury which has regard to its oath could honorably hold that this criminal information is without foundation, take, please, the bill which Scironides introduced in the meeting of the tribe. 58.18For this man Theocrines came forward, admitted the debt and in the presence of the members of the tribe promised to pay it, when he saw that we were coming up and were planning to take a copy of what stood written in the register.Decree

With much better reason, men of Athens, would you commend the members of the tribe Leontis, who compelled Theocrines to pay the seven minae, than this fellow himself.