Against Aphobus 3
If I were not
conscious, men of the jury, that in a former suit against Aphobus I had readily
(so absolutely manifest were his wrongdoings) convicted him of
lies greater and more outrageous than these which he now utters, I should have
grave doubts of my ability to show how he seeks to lead you astray in regard to
each one of them. As it is, however (be it said with the favor of
heaven), if you prove fair and impartial hearers, I have strong hopes
that you will become as fully aware of the shamelessness of this man as were the
jurors in the former trial. If the case required eloquence or cleverness I
should shrink through distrust of my youth; but, as matters are, I need merely
point out and rehearse to you what the plaintiff's conduct toward us has been.
From this it will be easy, I think, for all of you to determine which of us is
the villain.
[
2]
I
know that the plaintiff has instituted this suit, not because he believes he can
convict anyone of having borne false witness against him, but because he thinks
that the large amount of damages which he was condemned to pay will give rise to
a feeling of prejudice against me, and of compassion toward himself. For this
reason he is now seeking to defend himself against charges made in a suit that
has already been decided, regarding which he had at the time no reasonable
defence to make. I, for my part, men of the jury, if I had proceeded to execute
the judgement against him and had been unwilling to make any reasonable
concession, should even so have done no wrong in exacting the damages awarded by
your decision; but for all that it might have been said that I had shown undue
ruthlessness and enmity toward a man who is a relative in depriving him of all
his property.
[
3]
But, as it is, the precise
contrary is the truth. This man with his co-trustees has robbed me of my entire
patrimony, and, even after being clearly convicted in your court, he does not
consider himself obliged to do anything reasonable. On the contrary he has
dispersed his property, giving his farm-buildings to Aesius and his farm to
Onetor, against whom he has forced me to engage in a troublesome lawsuit. He
himself stripped the house of its furniture, took away the slaves, destroyed the
wine-vat, tore off the doors, and all but set fire to the house itself; then he
made off to
Megara, where he has
settled and paid the alien's tax. You would, therefore, with better ground
loathe this man for deeds like these, than judge me guilty of undue severity.
[
4]
Regarding
the rapacity and vile character of the plaintiff I purpose to speak at length
before you later on, though what you have even now heard gives you a fair idea
of it. But I shall now undertake to show you, that the testimony which has been
given, about which you are going to cast your votes, is true. But one request I
make of you, men of the jury, and it is a reasonable one—that you will
give us both a fair hearing. This is as much in your interest as in mine, for
the more accurate your knowledge of the facts, the more just and in harmony with
your oaths will be the vote you will cast regarding them.
[
5]
I shall show that Aphobus has not only acknowledged
Milyas to be a freeman, but has
even proved it by his actions; that, furthermore, about this matter he has
declined the absolutely sure test by torture,
1 and does not wish
to have the truth brought to light that on the contrary he has recourse to
trickery, brings forward false witnesses, and by his own words distorts the
truth regarding what has taken place. So strong and so plain is the evidence by
which I shall prove these statements that you will all see clearly that it is I
who am speaking the truth, and that he has uttered not a word worthy of
credence. I shall begin at a point which will make it easiest for you to learn
the facts, and for me to instruct you regarding them in the briefest time.
[
6]
I instituted
suit, men of the jury, against Demophon, Therippides and the plaintiff for
breach of trust in their guardianship, for I had been defrauded by them of all
my inheritance. When my suit against Aphobus in the first instance came up for
trial, I proved clearly to the jury, as I shall prove to you, that he, in
conjunction with the others, had robbed me of all the property that had been
left me; and I relied upon no false testimony.
[
7]
Here is a clear proof of this. A host of depositions was read at the trial,
some of the deponents declaring that they had given to the plaintiff property of
mine, others that he had received such property in their presence, still others
that they had purchased goods from him, and paid him the price; yet he has
charged not a single one of these with bearing false testimony. He has dared to
attack this one piece of testimony, and it alone, although in it he cannot show
that there was mention even of one single drachma.
[
8]
And yet for the computation of the sums of which I had been
robbed, I relied not so much on this man's testimony, for there was no mention
of money in it, but on the several statements of the others, against whom the
plaintiff has made no charges. Therefore the jurymen who at that time heard my
plea, not only found him guilty, but fixed the damages at the full amount stated
in my complaint. Why was it, then, that he passed over the other witnesses and
sued the defendant alone? I will tell you.
[
9]
In
regard to all the witnesses who testified that he had received the money, he
knew that the more discussion there should be over each separate point, the more
convincingly would he be convicted of possessing it, and this was bound to be
the case in a trial for false witness; for the accusations which I then made
along with all the others in a small part of the time allotted me, I should now
discuss severally and in detail in the time of an entire speech;
[
10]
whereas, if he attacked an answer given, he thought
that as he had made an admission before, so now it would be in his power to make
a denial.
2 That is the
reason why he attacks the testimony of this witness, the truth of whose
testimony I mean to prove conclusively to you all, not on the basis of
probabilities, or of arguments made up to fit the occasion, but by reasoning
which, I am sure, will approve itself to you all as just and fair. Listen, and
judge.
[
11]
I knew,
men of the jury, that I should find the whole contest centring about the
deposition inserted in the record, and that it would be regarding the truth or
falsehood of this that you would cast your votes, and I therefore determined
that the first step for me to take was to offer Aphobus a challenge. What, then,
did I do? I offered to surrender to him for examination by torture a slave who
knew how to read and write, and who had been present when Aphobus made the
admission in question, and who wrote down the statement of the witness. This man
had been ordered by me not to use any fraud or trickery, nor to write down some
and suppress others of the statements made by the plaintiff regarding the
matters at issue, but simply to write the absolute truth, and what Aphobus
actually said.
[
12]
What better opportunity could
he have had of convicting us of falsehood than by putting my slave to torture?
But Aphobus knew better than anyone else that the slave had borne true
testimony, and therefore he declined the test. And in truth it is not one or two
only who know these facts; the challenge was not made in secret, but in the
midst of the agora where many were present.
Call,
please, the witnesses to these facts.“
Witnesses
”
[
13]
The fellow is
so cunning, and so ready to pretend ignorance of what is right, that, although
he is pressing a suit for false witness, and although you are to cast your votes
regarding this, and have sworn so to do, he refused the proffered examination by
torture in regard to the testimony (the point to which he should have
devoted his argument), and declares that he requires the slave to be
given up for testing in regard to other matters. In this he is lying.
[
14]
Is it not indeed monstrous that he should claim that
he is being outrageously treated by my refusal of his demand to have delivered
to him for torture a freeman (for such I shall conclusively prove
Milyas to be), and
should not consider that my witnesses are being outrageously treated, when I
offer him one who is admittedly a slave, to be tested by torture regarding their
testimony, and he refuses? For he surely cannot maintain this, that for some
matters, which he himself desires, torture is a certain test, and for others
not.
[
15]
Furthermore, men of the jury, the first witness to give this testimony was
Aesius, the brother of the plaintiff. He now denies it, because he has allied
himself in the suit with Aphobus; but at that time he gave this testimony along
with the other witnesses, for he had no desire to perjure himself, or to suffer
the penalty which would straightway follow. Surely now, if I had been getting up
false testimony, I should not have put this man in my list of witnesses, seeing
that he was more intimate with Aphobus than with anyone else in the world, and
knowing that he was going to plead for him in the suit, and that he was an
adversary of my own. It is not reasonable that one should call as witness to a
false statement one who is an opponent of his own, and a brother of his
adversary.
[
16]
I have many witnesses to these
facts, and circumstantial proofs no fewer in number than the witnesses. In the
first place, if he did not in very truth give this testimony, he would not be
denying it now, but would have done so at once in the courtroom, when the
deposition was read, for it would have answered his purpose better then than
now. In the second place Aesius would not have kept quiet, but would have sued
me for damages, if without cause I had made him liable to a charge of bearing
false witness against his brother, a charge on which men run the risk both of
damages in money and the loss of citizenship.
[
17]
Again, in seeking to bring the truth of the matter to light, he would have
demanded of me the slave who wrote the depositions, in order that, if I refused
to give him up, I might seem to have no just ground for my statements. But, as
it is, so far from doing anything of the sort, he refused to accept the slave
for torture, when I, on his denial that he had given the evidence, offered him.
So plain is it that regarding this matter too both he and Aphobus as well were
alike unwilling to have recourse to torture.
[
18]
To prove that my words are true, that after
Aesius had given his testimony with the other witnesses, he made no denial of
the fact, when, standing by the plaintiff's side in the courtroom, he heard the
deposition read, and that, when I offered the slave to them to be questioned by
torture regarding all these matters, he refused to accept the
offer—regarding each of these points severally I shall produce
witnesses. Please call them here.“
Witnesses
”
[
19]
I wish now to
set forth to you, men of the jury, what I consider a stronger proof than all
those that have been mentioned, to show that the plaintiff did give this answer.
When, despite the admissions which he is proved to have made, he demanded of me
Milyas for torture, I was so
eager to show on the spot that this, too, was a subterfuge on his part, that
what do you think I did?
[
20]
I summoned Aphobus to
give evidence against Demo, his uncle and a partner in his crimes. I wrote out
the testimony which he now attacks as false and ordered him to make a deposition
to it. At first he brazenly refused, but when the arbitrator bade him depose, or
deny the fact under oath, he deposed, sorely against his will. And yet if the
man was a slave, and had not been already admitted by Aphobus here to be free,
what in the world induced him to make this deposition? Why did he not deny it on
oath, and so get free of the affair?
[
21]
Pray note
that in regard to this matter also I was ready to give over to him for torture
the slave who had written the deposition, who would know his own handwriting,
and who clearly remembered that Aphobus had made the deposition. I was ready to
do this, not for want of witnesses who were present, for there were some; but in
order that he might not accuse these men of giving false testimony, and that the
result of the torture might support them. Yet it is not fair to condemn the
witnesses on his account. They alone of men who have as yet stood trial before
you can show that the plaintiff himself has borne witness to their testimony as
to these matters.
To prove that I am speaking the
truth, take the challenge and the deposition.“
Challenge
”“
Deposition
”
[
22]
Such are the
legal tests which he has refused, and so numerous the proofs by which he is
shown to be acting with malice and insincerity; yet he demands that you put
credence in his own witnesses, and he slanders mine, and declares that their
testimony is false.
I wish now to speak of the
matter on the basis of probabilities. I am certain that you would all agree that
those who give false testimony are led to do so by bribes through stress of
poverty, or by friendship, or else by enmity toward the opposite party in the
suit.
[
23]
Now no one of these reasons would have
led the men to testify in my favor. Not friendship; how could that be, seeing
that they are not engaged in the same pursuits, nor are they of like age, I will
not say with me, but with one another? Not enmity against my adversary, that is
plain; for one of them is his brother and pleads on his side; Phanus is a close
friend and a member of the same tribe; and Philip is neither friend nor enemy,
so that this motive, too, cannot be justly charged against them.
[
24]
Furthermore, no one could say that poverty was the
ground, for they all possess means so ample that they willingly assume the
expense of public services, and discharge whatever duties are laid upon them.
Besides all this, they are well known to you, and you know nothing to their
discredit; for they are worthy citizens. Yet, if they are not poor, nor enemies
of the plaintiff, nor friends of mine, how can it be right to suspect them of
bearing false witness? I certainly do not know.
[
25]
My opponent was aware of all this, and knew
better than anybody else that their testimony was true, but nonetheless he
brings forward a malicious charge against them, and not only declares that he
did not make the statement which I have proved in the most conclusive manner
that he did make, but even asserts that the man,
Milyas, is in fact a slave. I wish in a very few words to prove
that in this, too, he is lying. I was ready, men of the jury, regarding this
point also to give over to him to be tested by torture my female slaves, who
remember that my father on his death-bed set this man free.
[
26]
Besides this, my mother was ready to call to her side my
sister and myself, and swear, with imprecations on our heads if she spoke
falsely—we were her only children, and it was for our sakes that she
gave herself up to a life of widowhood—that my father when he was
about to die had set this man free, and that
Milyas was regarded by us as free thereafter. Let no one of you
assume that she would have been willing to make this oath with imprecations on
our heads if she had not known well that what she was to swear to was
true.
Come now, to prove that I am speaking
the truth and that we were ready to do these things, call the witnesses
thereto.“
Witnesses
”
[
27]
So many were
the just arguments we had to urge, and so ready were we to have recourse to the
most infallible tests regarding the testimony given; and yet the plaintiff
evades all these, and fancies that by slandering me regarding the trial which
has already taken place, and bringing accusations against me, he can induce you
to convict the witness,—a piece of trickery the most unfair and the
most rapacious imaginable.
[
28]
For he has himself
suborned men to bear false witness about these matters, having as co-workers his
brother-in-law Onetor, and Timocrates
3; we had no forewarning of
this, and supposed that the contest would be regarding the deposition alone, and
therefore have not come prepared with witnesses regarding the guardianship
accounts. Nevertheless, despite the fellow's trickery, I think that, simply by
reciting the facts, I shall easily convince you that no man was ever more justly
convicted than he.
[
29]
It was not because I
refused to allow
Milyas to be put to
the torture, nor because he himself admitted the man to be a freeman, nor yet
because these witnesses gave their testimony; but because he was proved to have
taken possession of large sums belonging to me, and because he did not let the
estate, though the laws so ordered and my father had so directed in his will, as
I shall plainly show you. For these were things that anyone could see, the laws,
namely, and the amount of my property which these men had taken as plunder; but
as for
Milyas, nobody knew even who
he was. You will see from the charges brought against Aphobus that these things
are so.
[
30]
For,
men of the jury, when I instituted my suit against him concerning his
guardianship, I did not fix the damages at a lump sum, as one bringing forward a
baseless charge out of malice would have done, but specified each item, stating
the source of each, the precise amount, and the person from whom it had been
received. In no case did I add mention of
Milyas as having knowledge of any of these matters.
[
31]
Hence this is the beginning of the complaint:
“Demosthenes makes the following charges against Aphobus. Aphobus has
in his possession moneys of mine, received by him in his capacity as guardian,
as follows: eighty minae, which he received as the marriage-portion of my mother
in accordance with the terms of my father's will.” This is the first
of the sums of which I claim to have been defrauded. Now what was the
declaration of the witnesses? “That they were present before the
arbitrator, Notharchus, when Aphobus admitted that
Milyas was a freeman, having been
emancipated by the father of Demosthenes.”
[
32]
Consider now for yourselves whether in your judgement there
could be an orator, or sophist or magician so wondrously clever in speaking as
by means of this testimony to convince any man on earth that Aphobus is in
possession of the marriage-portion of the speaker's mother. What in heaven's
name would he say? “Aphobus has admitted that
Milyas is a freeman.” And why on
that account is he any the more in possession of the marriage-portion? The
statement would surely not seem to prove it.
[
33]
But how was it proved? In the first place, Therippides, his co-trustee,
testified that he had given him the money. Secondly, Demo, his uncle, and the
rest of the witnesses who were present, testified that he agreed to supply my
mother with maintenance, as being in possession of her portion. Against these
men he has lodged no charges, plainly because he knew that their testimony was
true. Besides this, my mother was ready to call to her side my sister and
myself, and swear with imprecations on our heads, if she spoke falsely, that
Aphobus had received her marriage-portion according to the terms of my father's
will.
[
34]
Shall we, then, say, or shall we not,
that he has possession of these eighty minae? And was it on the evidence of
these witnesses here or of those that he was convicted? I think it was on the
evidence of truth. He has enjoyed the interest on this sum for ten years, and
even though judgement has been given against him, cannot bring himself to pay it
back. Despite this, he declares that he has been outrageously treated and that
he lost the suit by reason of these witnesses. Yet not one of them testified
that he had received the marriage-portion.
[
35]
With regard to the maritime loan,
4 the sofa-makers, and the iron and the
ivory that were left me, and my sister's marriage-portion, at the purloining of
which Aphobus connived in order to secure for himself the right to take whatever
he pleased of my goods, listen, and see how just was the verdict given against
him, and how absurd it would have been to examine
Milyas by torture regarding any of these
matters.
[
36]
For as
regards the purloining of funds at which you connived there is a law which
expressly declares that you are responsible for them exactly as if you had them
in your own possession. So what has the law to do with the testing of a slave by
torture? But in the matter of the maritime loan you made common cause with
Xuthus,
5
divided the money with him, and destroyed the contract, and now that you have
arranged everything to suit your wish, and have done away with the documentary
evidence (as Demo testified against you), you have recourse to
trickery, and endeavor to mislead these gentlemen.
[
37]
Regarding the sofa-makers, if you took money, and made large
profits for yourself by making loans on security that was mine—you,
who should rather have prevented others from doing so—and finally made
away with the slaves altogether, what, pray, can the witnesses do in your
behalf? These men at any rate have not testified that you admitted lending money
on the security of my slaves, and that you appropriated the slaves to yourself.
On the contrary, it was you who acknowledged this in your account, and the
witnesses testified to the fact against you.
[
38]
Now look you, as to the ivory and iron, I
have this to say: all the slaves of the household know that the plaintiff used
to sell these articles. I am ready now, as I was then, to give over to him any
one of these slaves whom he may choose to be examined by torture. If then, he
alleges that I refuse to surrender the man who has knowledge of the facts, and
offer him others who have no such knowledge, he will but show that he ought all
the more to have accepted my offer. For if those whom I offered to him as having
knowledge of the facts, declared that he had none of these articles in his
possession, he would of course have been acquitted of the charge.
[
39]
But nothing of the sort is the truth. It would have
been proved past all question that he had sold the goods, and appropriated the
profits. Therefore, he passed over those who were admittedly slaves, and
demanded that a freeman be examined by torture, whom it would have been a crime
for me to surrender; for it was not his purpose that he should sift out the
matter, but that he might make a specious argument out of the fact that his
demand was refused.
Regarding, therefore, all
these facts, first the marriage-portion, then his connivance with fraud, then
all the rest, there shall be read to you the laws and the depositions, that you
may have full knowledge.“
Laws
”“
Depositions
”
[
40]
Not only from
the facts already adduced can you see that Aphobus was not in any respect
whatever prejudiced by my refusal to give the man up for torture, but also from
a consideration of the matter itself. Let us suppose that
Milyas is being racked upon the wheel, and
consider what Aphobus would most wish him to say. Would it not be that he was
not aware that the plaintiff had any of the property in his possession? Well,
suppose he says so. Does that prove that the plaintiff has none? Far from it;
for I produced men who knew, men who paid him the money, men who were present in
person, as witnesses. It is convincing proof, not if one is ignorant that a man
has something in his possession (for there might be many
such), but if one knows that he has it.
[
41]
But of the many witnesses who testified against you, what
one have you sued for false testimony? Tell us. But you cannot. Yet you plainly
convict yourself, and prove that you lie when you declare that you have been
outrageously treated, and that you lost the suit unjustly, because this man was
not given up to you—you who made no charge of giving false testimony
against the witnesses who testified that you received and had in your possession
the property, concerning which you demanded
Milyas for torture to prove that it was never left us. If you
had really been wronged, it would have been more fitting to proceed against
them. But you were not wronged, and are bringing a baseless suit out of malice.
[
42]
There are
many points from which one may see your rascality, but most of all if one hears
how you acted regarding the will. For although my father, men of the jury, wrote
a will containing an inventory of all that he left, with instructions for
letting the property, this will Aphobus never gave up to me, lest I should learn
from it the value of the estate, and admitted possessing only those items which
were so well known that he could not deny that he had them.
[
43]
The will, according to his statement, contained these
provisions: that Demophon should at once receive two talents, and should marry
my sister when she should come of age (this would be in ten
years); that Aphobus himself should have eighty minae with my mother,
and the house to live in; and that Therippides should enjoy the interest on
seventy minae until I should reach manhood. All the rest of the property left to
me apart from these items, and the clause regarding the letting of the estate,
he suppressed from the will, not thinking that it was to his interest that these
matters should be made known in your court.
[
44]
However, since it was admitted by Aphobus himself that my father on his
death-bed gave to each of these men such large sums of money, the jurymen at the
former trial considered these admissions to be a proof of the size of the
estate. For when a man gave out of his estate four talents and three thousand
drachmae by way of marriage-portion and legacy, it was plain that he took these
sums, not from a small estate, but from one (bequeathed to me)
of more than double this amount.
[
45]
6 For it cannot be supposed that he would wish to
leave me, his son, in poverty, and be eager further to enrich these men, who
were already wealthy. No; it was because of the size of the estate left to me
that he gave to Therippides the interest on seventy minae, and to Demophon that
on the two talents—though he was not yet to marry my sister. These
moneys it has been proved that Aphobus never gave over to me, nor even an amount
slightly less. Part of it he said he had spent, part he had never received, part
he knew nothing about, part was in the hands of so-and-so, part was in the
house, and of part he could say anything except when and where he had paid it
over.
[
46]
As to his
story of money left in the house I shall clearly prove to you that he is lying.
This argument he speciously introduced, when it had become clear that the
property was large and was unable to show that he had paid it back, in order
that it might appear a reasonable inference that I was wrongfully seeking to
recover what was already in my possession.
[
47]
7 If my father
had no confidence in these men it is plain that he would neither have entrusted
them with the rest of his property, nor, if he had left this money in the way
alleged, would he have told them of it. How, then, do they know about it? But,
if he had confidence in them, he would not, I take it, have given into their
hands the bulk of his property, and not have put them in charge of the rest. Nor
would he have entrusted this remainder to my mother to keep and then have
pledged her herself in marriage to this man, who was one of the guardians. For
it is not reasonable that he should seek to make the money secure through her,
and yet put one of the men whom he distrusted in control both of her and of it.
[
48]
Furthermore, if there were any truth in
all this, do you suppose that Aphobus would not have taken my mother to wife,
bequeathed to him as she was by my father? He had already taken her
marriage-portion—the eighty minae—as though he were going to
marry her; but he subsequently married the daughter of Philonides of Melite,
from motives of avarice, in order that, in addition to what he had received from
us, he might get from him other eighty minae. But, if there had been four
talents in the house, and in her custody, as he alleges, don't you imagine he
would have raced to get possession both of her and of them?
[
49]
Would he have joined with his co-trustees in so shamefully
plundering my visible property, which many of you knew had been left me, and
have refrained, when he had the chance, from seizing a fund to the existence of
which you would not be able to testify? Who can believe this? It is impossible,
men of the jury; it is impossible. No; all the money which my father left was
indeed buried on the day on which it came into the hands of these men; and the
defendant, not being able to tell when and where he paid back any of it, makes
use of these arguments, hoping that I may seem to be a rich man, and so meet
with no compassion from you.
[
50]
I have many other charges to make against him, but I have not
the right to speak of the injuries I myself have suffered, when the witness is
in danger of losing his civic rights. Still I wish to read to you a challenge,
for you will know, when you have heard it, that the testimony was true, and that
Aphobus, who now declares that he demands
Milyas to be examined about all the matters involved in the
suit, at first demanded him only in regard to a question of thirty minae; and,
furthermore, that he has been put to no disadvantage because of the testimony.
[
51]
For I, in my desire to refute him in every
particular, and in my attempt to make clear to you his tricks and his
villainies, asked him how large the sum was regarding which he demanded to
examine
Milyas, as one who had
knowledge of the facts. To this he replied falsely, that it was in regard to the
whole amount. “Well then,” said I, “as to this I
will give up to you for examination by torture the slave who has the copy of
your challenge to me.
[
52]
If, when I have given
oath that you acknowledged the man to be free, and that you so testified against
Demo, you will swear to the contrary with imprecations upon your daughter, I
release to you the entire sum, for which you shall be shown by the examination
of the slave to have at the first demanded
Milyas; and the damages which you were condemned to pay shall
be lessened by thus much—that is, by the amount in regard to which you
demanded
Milyas, to the end that you
may be found to have been put to no disadvantage by the witnesses.”
[
53]
This challenge I made to him in the
presence of many witnesses; but he said he could not accept it. Yet, if a man
refused to give this judgement in his own favor, how can it be right for you,
who are upon your oaths, to give credence to his words and convict the
witnesses, and not rather to regard this man as the most shameless of
humankind?
To prove that my words are true,
call the witnesses to these facts.“
Witnesses
”
[
54]
Do not suppose
that while I was ready to take this course, the witnesses did not hold the same
opinion. No; they too were ready to place their children by their side, and in
confirmation of the testimony they had given, to take an oath with imprecations
upon them, if they swore falsely. But Aphobus did not see fit to allow an oath
to be given either to them or to me. Instead, he rests his case on arguments
subtly planned and on witnesses accustomed to perjury, and thinks thereby easily
to mislead you. So take and read to the jury this deposition also.“
Deposition
”
[
55]
How could one
prove more clearly than I have proved that we are the object of a malicious
charge; that the evidence brought forward against my opponent is true; and that
his condemnation was just? I have shown that he refused to examine by torture
the slave who wrote the testimony regarding the very things to which he had
testified; that his brother, Aesius, has attested the facts which he on his part
declares to be false;
[
56]
that Aphobus himself
has, at my summons, given against Demo,
8 his
uncle and co-trustee, the same testimony as the witnesses whom he is suing; that
he refused to examine my women-servants as to the fact of
Milyas being a freeman; that my own mother
was ready to give an oath regarding these matters with imprecations upon us;
that he refused to accept for examination any one of my other slaves who knew
all the circumstances better than
Milyas did; that he has not brought a charge of false witness
against any one of those who testified that he had the money;
[
57]
that he did not give over the will, nor let the house,
although the laws so bade; and finally that he did not see fit to give an oath,
after the witnesses and I myself had sworn, whereby he could have secured
release to the amount of the sums regarding which he had demanded
Milyas for torture. By heaven, I certainly
could think of no better way than this to establish these facts. Yet, plain as
it is that he falsely attacks the witnesses; that he suffers no damage from the
facts adduced; that he was justly condemned; he still tries to brazen it out.
[
58]
If it were not that he uses his present
language after having at the outset been judged to be in the wrong by his own
friends and by the arbitrator, there would be less reason to wonder at all this.
But the fact is, that after persuading me to refer the matter to Archeneus and
Dracontides and Phanus (the last of whom he is now suing on a charge of
giving false witness), he rejected them (having heard them say
that, if they decided on oath, they would condemn his conduct as
guardian), and appeared before the official arbitrator, who, since
Aphobus was unable to clear himself from the charges which I brought, gave
judgement against him.
[
59]
The jury, to whom he
then appealed, having heard the case, gave the same decision that his own
friends and the arbitrator had given, and fixed the damages at ten talents. This
was not, heaven knows, because he had admitted
Milyas to be a freeman (for this was nothing to the
point), but because, a fortune of fifteen talents having been left me,
he had not let the property; because further, he with his co-trustees had the
management of the estate for ten years, and agreed on behalf of me, a child, to
pay a property-tax at the rate of five minae,
9
[
60]
the same rate at which Timotheus, son of
Conon, and those possessing the
largest fortunes were assessed; and because, after administering for so long an
estate, on which he voluntarily chose to pay so high a tax, he turned over to
me, as the amount due from him, property not even of the value of twenty minae,
having together with those others robbed me of my whole estate, principal as
well as interest. The jurymen, therefore, although they allowed interest on the
whole property at the lowest rate, and not that at which estates are ordinarily
let, found that these men had robbed me of more than thirty talents, and
accordingly fixed the damages against Aphobus at ten talents.