I invoke many blessings, men of the jury, first
upon all of you, and then also upon Solon, who established the law about the
exchange of estates. For if he had not clearly defined for us what is the first
thing to be done by those who have offered an exchange, and what the second, and
so on in due order, I do not know to what lengths the audacity of this man
Phaenippus would have gone, when even as it is, notwithstanding that the law
prescribes all these things for us, he has nevertheless disregarded its just
provisions, and instead of giving me the inventory of his property as the law
prescribes within three days after he took the oath, or if he did not wish to do
so then, giving it at least on the sixth day of the month Boedromion,1 which date was fixed
upon at his request, and on which he promised to deliver the inventory, he did
neither the one thing nor the other,
1 The month Boedromion corresponds to the latter half of September and the prior half of October.
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by A. T. Murray, Ph.D., LL.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1939.
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