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§§ 19—21. Having now recounted some of the wrongs done me by Arethusius and his brother Nicostratus, I will call evidence in detail to prove that the two slaves entered by me in the specification do not belong to Nicostratus, who is now attempting to claim them, but are really part of the property of Arethusius and are thus liable to be confiscated to the state, as a partial payment of his debt to the treasury. § 19. At this point the speaker, after having shown the reasons which justified him in regarding Arethusius as his enemy and exacting vengeance from him, reaches the real point at issue, viz. the proof that the slaves specified in the schedule belong to Arethusius, and not, as is alleged, to his brother Nicostratus. τὸν μὲν γὰρ Κέρδωνα contrasted with τὸν δὲ Μάνην in § 20. Κέρδων is a slave-name expressive of knavish cunning (cf. ἡ κερδώ, ‘the wily one,’ i.e. ‘the fox’). Digest XXXVIII 1, 42 Cerdonem servum meum manumitti volo (quoted by Mayor on Juv. IV 153 tollat sua munera Cerdo). ἐκ μικροῦ παιδαρίου Plat. Symp. 207 D ἐκ παιδαρίου, Or. 59 (Apoll. κατὰ Νεαίρας) § 18, ταύτας παιδίσκας ἐκ μικρῶν παιδίων ἐκτήσατο, and similarly the far more frequent phrases ἐκ παιδός (Or. 27 § 4), ἑκ νέου, ἐκ μειρακίου.
Select Private Orations of Demosthenes, Part II. J. E. Sandys, Litt. D., and F. A. Paley, M.A., LL.D. 1910. Cambridge University Press.
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