Greek Texts & Translations

58.30Such, then, was his conduct where his brother was concerned; but it is worth your while to hear how he has managed affairs since he came forward in public life (for he declares that he loves you next after his own relatives). I will begin with his conduct toward us. In his accusation against my father, men of the jury, when he was prosecuting the indictment for illegality against him, he stated that a plot had been formed against the boy, ^note regarding whom the decree was drawn—the decree, that is, in which my father moved that maintenance in the Prytaneum ^note should be granted to Charidemus, son of Ischomachus. 58.31For Theocrines asserted that, if the boy should return to his father's house, he would be found to have lost all the estate which Aeschylus, his adoptive father, had given him. This assertion was false, for no such thing, men of the jury, has ever happened to any adopted person. He made the further assertion that Polyeuctus, the husband of the boy's mother, had been responsible for the whole scheme, since he wished to retain possession of the boy's property. The jurymen were incensed at his assertions and held that, while the decree itself and the grant were both legal, the boy would in fact be robbed of his estate; and they fined my father ten talents as being in the scheme with Polyeuctus, and gave credence to Theocrines as having come to the boy's defence. 58.32Such, or substantially such, were the proceedings in court. But when this worthy fellow saw that the people were filled with wrath, and that he himself had been believed, as one who was not wholly depraved, he summoned Polyeuctus before the archon and lodged an indictment against him for maltreatment of an orphan, and put the case in the hands of the assessor Mnesarchides. ^note When, however, he had received two hundred drachmae from Polyeuctus and had sold for a trifling sum those awful charges for which he had fixed the damages in my father's case at ten talents, he dropped the matter, withdrew the indictment, and left the orphan in the lurch.

Call, please, the witnesses who support these statements.Witnesses

58.33If now my father had been well-to-do, men of the jury, and able to provide a thousand drachmae, he would have got off entirely free from the indictment for illegality; for that was the sum the defendant demanded of him.

Call, please, Philippides of Paeania ^note to whom this fellow Theocrines made this statement, and the others who know that he made it.Witnesses

58.34That Theocrines, men of the jury, if he had been offered the thousand drachmae, would have withdrawn the indictment against my father, I think that you are all convinced, even if no witness had so testified. To prove, however, that he has summoned many other people and preferred indictments against them, and then has compromised the matter, and that he is in the habit of desisting from prosecution on receipt of small bribes, I shall call before you the very persons who paid him, in order that you may not believe him when he declares that it is he who keeps watch over those who propose illegal measures, and that when indictments for illegality are done away with it is the ruin of your democracy. (For it is in this way that all those who sell everything for money are in the habit of talking.)

58.35Call, please, Aristomachus, son of Critodemus, of Alopecê, ^note for it is he who paid—or rather in whose house were paid—the mina and a half to this man who cannot be bribed, in the matter of the decree which Antimedon proposed on behalf of the people of Tenedos. ^noteDeposition

Read also in sequence the other depositions of the same sort, and that of Hypereides ^note and Demosthenes. For this goes beyond all else—that the fellow should be most glad, by selling indictments to get money from men, from whom no one else would think of demanding it. ^noteDepositions

58.36Well, he will presently say that the criminal information has been lodged against him for this purpose, that he may not proceed with the indictment which he preferred against Demosthenes or with that against Thucydides; for he is a clever fellow at lying and at saying what lacks all foundation. I have looked into this matter also, men of the jury, and will show you that the state suffers not the slightest harm, whether the decree of Thucydides is ratified, or whether it is annulled. And yet it is not right to bring up a defence of this sort before men who have sworn to give a verdict according to the laws. You will, however, presently learn from the indictment itself, that it is merely a pretext to offset the criminal information.

Read these indictments. ^noteIndictments