Against Boeotus II

Nothing is more painful, men of the jury, than when a man is addressed by name as brother of certain persons, whom in fact he regards as enemies, and when he is compelled, on account of the many cruel wrongs which he has suffered at their hands, to come into court; as is my case now.

For instance, I have not only had the misfortune in the beginning that Plangon, the mother of these men, by deceit and manifest perjury, compelled my father to bring himself to acknowledge them, and that consequently I was robbed of two-thirds of my inheritance; but, in addition to this, I have been driven by these men out of the house of my fathers, in which I was born and brought up, and into which they were admitted, not by my father, but by myself after his death;

and I am being robbed of my mother’s dowry, for which I am now bringing suit, although I have myself given them satisfaction in all the matters in which they made claims upon me, except some trifling cross-demands which they have maliciously brought against me on account of this action, as will be perfectly clear to you also; yet in the course of eleven years I have been unable to obtain from them a reasonable settlement, and so at length I have had recourse to you for help.

I beg you all, men of the jury, to listen to me with goodwill, while I speak as best I can; and if I seem to you to have suffered cruel wrongs, to pardon me for seeking to recover what is my own, especially as it is for a marriage-portion for my daughter. For it so happened that I married at my father’s request when I was only eighteen, and that I have a daughter who is already of marriageable age.

It is, therefore, just on many accounts that you should aid me who am being wronged, and fitting that you should feel indignation against the men, who—O Earth and the Gods—when they need not have come into court at all had they done what is fair, are not ashamed to remind you of any improper acts of my father, or of wrongs which they committed against him, but even force me to go to law with them. To make you understand clearly that it is they, not I, who are to blame for this, I will set forth to you the facts of the case from the beginning with the utmost possible brevity.

My mother, men of the jury, was the daughter of Polyaratus, of Cholargus[*](Cholargus was a deme of the tribe Acamantis.), and sister of Menexenus, and Bathyllus and Periander. Her father gave her in marriage to Cleomedon, son of Cleon,[*](The famous demagogue, known to us from Thucydides and Aristophanes.) adding a talent as her marriage-portion; and at the first she dwelt with him as his wife, and bore him three daughters and one son, Cleon. After this her husband died, and she left his family, receiving back her marriage-portion.

Her brothers, Menexenus and.Bathyllus (for Periander was still a boy) then gave her again in marriage with the talent for her dowry, and she dwelt with my father as his wife. There were born to them myself and another brother, younger than I, who died while still a child.

To prove that I am speaking the truth, I will first bring forward witnesses to establish these facts.

The Witnesses

My father, then, having thus married my mother, maintained her as his wife in his own house; and he brought me up and showed me a father’s affection such as you also all show to your children. But with Plangon, the mother of these men, he formed a connection of some sort or other (it is not for me to say what it was);

however, he was not so wholly the slave of his passion as to deem it right even after my mother’s death to receive the woman into his own house, or to admit that the defendants were his children. No, for all the rest of the time they lived as not being sons of my father, as most of you know; but after Boeotus had grown up and had associated with himself a gang of blackmailers,[*](On this whole passage compare the preceding oration, Dem. 39.2.) whose leaders were Mnesicles and that Menecles who secured the conviction of Ninus, in connection with these men he brought suit against my father, claiming that he was his son.

Many meetings took place about these matters, and my father declared that he would never be convinced that these men were his children, and finally Plangon, men of the jury (for the whole truth shall be told you), having in conjunction with Menecles laid a snare for my father, and deceived him by an oath that among all mankind is held to be the greatest and most awful,[*](A quotation from Hom. Il. 15.37 f.) agreed that, if she were paid thirty minae, she would get her brothers to adopt these men, and that, on her own part, if my father should challenge her before the arbitrator to swear that the children were in very truth his sons, she would decline the challenge. For if this were done, she said, the defendants would not be deprived of their civic rights,[*](These would be ensured to them by the fact of their being enrolled in the clan register; but if they were enrolled as sons of the brothers of Plangon, they could no longer make trouble for Mantias by claiming to be sons of his.) but they would no longer be able to make trouble for my father, seeing that their mother had refused the oath.

When these terms had been accepted—for why should I make my story a long one?—he went to meet her before the arbitrator, and Plangon, contrary to all that she had agreed to do, accepted the challenge, and swore in the Delphinium[*](The temple of Apollo Delphinius, situated somewhere near the ancient entrance to the Acropolis.) an oath which was the very opposite of her former one, as most of you know well; for the transaction became a notorious one. Thus, my father was compelled on account of his own challenge to abide by the arbitrator’s award, but he was indignant at what had been done, and took the matter heavily to heart, and did not even so consent to admit these men into his house; but he was compelled to introduce them to the clansmen. The defendant he enrolled as Boeotus, and the other as Pamphilus.

As for me, he forthwith persuaded me, for I was about eighteen years of age, to marry the daughter of Euphemus, wishing to live to see children born to me. I, men of the jury, as before, so especially then, when these men were beginning to annoy him with lawsuits and were proving troublesome, thought that I, on the contrary, ought to strive to gladden him by doing everything whereby I could give him pleasure, and so obeyed him.

When I had married in this way, and he had lived to see my little daughter born, not many years later he fell sick and died. Then, although during my father’s lifetime, men of the jury, I had thought it my duty to oppose him in nothing, yet after his death I received these men into the house, and gave them a share of all the property, not as being really my brothers (for most of you are well aware of the manner in which they became such), but thinking that, as my father had been beguiled, it was my duty to obey your laws.

And when they had thus been received by me into the house, we proceeded to divide the inheritance; and upon my demanding that my mother’s marriage-portion be repaid to me, these men put in a counter-claim, and alleged that a portion of like amount was owing to their mother.[*](Below (Dem. 40.20, end) the amount is set at more than 100 minae, not a talent merely.) On the advice of friends who were present we divided all the rest of the property but kept apart the house and the domestic servants of my father,

in order that whichever party of us might establish his claim to the dowry should recover it from the value of the house; and from the slaves, who were common property, the defendants, should they wish to search out[*](The precise meaning of this phrase is open to question. It may imply a claim that some property had been omitted from the inventory or in some way concealed.) any of my father’s effects, might make inquiry by torturing them, or by prosecuting their search in any other way they might please.

That I am speaking the truth in this also you will know from these depositions.

The Depositions

After this these men brought action against me to establish their claims, and I sued them for the marriage-portion. At the first we had Solon, of Erchia,[*](Erchia was a deme of the tribe Aeantis.) registered as arbitrator, and submitted to him for decision the claims we advanced against each other. These men, however, did not appear, but avoided the hearing; and thus considerable time was wasted, and it came about that Solon died. These men then instituted their suit against me afresh, and I my suit against the defendant, summoning him under the name of Boeotus, and inscribing that name on the complaint; for that was the name my father gave him.

In the suit which these men brought against me, Boeotus appeared and fought the case, but, since he was unable to establish any of their claims, the arbitrator decided in my favor; and Boeotus, conscious that he was making charges without any just basis, did not appeal to a jury, and has not now entered any suit against me in regard to these matters, but in regard to some others, thinking to break down this suit of mine by these counter-charges.[*](Boeotus evidently hoped that making claims on his own behalf he could offset the claim of Mantitheus for the dowry of his mother.) In the suit which at that time I was carrying on against Boeotus in regard to the marriage-portion, since he was here in Athens and did not appear before the arbitrator, the latter gave judgement against him by default.

And Boeotus, men of the jury, though he was here at the time would not contest the suit, but declared that I had not received the arbitrator’s verdict against him, for his name was not Boeotus, but Mantitheus; and thus, by quibbling about a name, he is in fact depriving me of my mother’s portion. As I was at a loss to know how one should deal with a matter like this, I instituted the same suit afresh against him as Mantitheus, and now in the eleventh year I have come to you for help.

To prove that I am speaking the truth in this also, the clerk will read the depositions dealing with these matters.

The Depositions

That my mother, therefore, men of the jury, bringing a talent as her dowry, and given in marriage by her brothers, as the laws command, lived with my father as his wife; the manner, too, in which I received these men into the house after my father’s death; and the fact that I obtained a verdict in the suits which they brought against me;—all this has been established for you by proofs and by testimony.

Come now, take also this law concerning the marriage-portion.

The Law

Such being the law, I fancy that this man—call him Boeotus or Mantitheus, or any other name by which he likes to be addressed—will have no valid or genuine defence to offer, but, relying upon his own audaciousness and effrontery, will endeavor to attach to me the misfortunes of his own family, as he is wont to do also in private life; and will allege that when the property of Pamphilus, who was the father of Plangon, was confiscated, my father took from out the council-chamber[*](The Bouleuterion, the meeting-place of the Council of 500, has been identified with a building found on the east slope of the Theseum hill, overlooking the Agora. See Vanderpool, Hesperia, 4. pp. 470 ff.) the surplus proceeds[*](The amount, that is, over and above the debt to the treasury.) and he will thus try to show that his own mother brought a dowry of more than one hundred minae, while my mother (he will claim) brought my father no portion whatever.