Against Boeotus II

These things he will state at length to you, men of the jury, although he has not put a single deposition in the box to substantiate them, and knows very well that there is not a word of truth in what he says; for he is fully conscious that in your court no man who confessed his guilt was ever acquitted, whereas by lying and advancing arguments to lead you astray many a man ere now has avoided paying the penalty for his deeds. In order, then, that you may not be deceived by him, I think it is better to speak to you briefly about this matter also.

For if he shall say that my mother did not bring with her a marriage-portion, while their mother did, bear in mind that he is manifestly lying. To begin with, Pamphilus, the father of this man’s mother, died owing five talents to the public treasury, and so far from there being any surplus proceeds for his children after his property had been scheduled and confiscated, even his indebtedness has not been paid in full, but to this day Pamphilus stands inscribed as a debtor to the treasury. How, then, can it be that my father received money from the estate of Pamphilus, which proved inadequate to pay in full even the debt due to the city?

Furthermore, men of the jury, bear this in mind, that were it never so true that this surplus money did accrue as these men pretend, it was not my father who would have received it, but the sons of Pamphilus, Boeotus and Hedylus and Euthydemus; and, I fancy, they are not men who would go to all lengths to get hold of the property of others, as you all know, and yet at the same time quietly have allowed my father to take possession of what was theirs.

That the mother of these men did not bring with her a marriage-portion, but that they are lying in regard to this, I think has been proved to you quite adequately; but that my mother did bring one, I shall easily show. In the first place, she was the daughter of Polyaratus, who was both honored by you citizens, and had acquired a large estate. Secondly, it has been proved to you by witnesses that her sister brought a dowry of the like amount when she married Eryximachus, the brother-in-law of Chabrias.[*](The famous Athenian general, whose victories over the Lacedaemonians made him one of the most notable figures in Athenian military history during the first half fo the fourth century B.C.)

Besides all this, my mother is shown to have been first given in marriage to Cleomedon, whose father Cleon, we are told,[*](A striking instance of the Greek preference for the spoken rather than the written word.) commanded troops among whom were your ancestors, and captured alive a large number of Lacedaemonians in Pylos,[*](This was in 425 B.C. The account is given in Thuc. 4.3 ff.) and won greater renown than any other man in the state; so it was not fitting that the son of that famous man should wed my mother without a dowry, nor is it likely that Menexenus and Bathyllus, who had large fortunes themselves, and who, after Cleomedon’s death, received back the dowry, defrauded their own sister; rather, they would themselves have added to her portion, when they gave her in marriage to my father, as they themselves and the others have testified before you.

And besides this, just consider why in the world, if my mother had not been a lawfully espoused wife, and had brought no dowry, while the mother of these men did, should my father have denied that they were his sons, and have acknowledged me, and brought me up? Because, forsooth, as these men will claim, he dishonored them in order to show favor to me and my mother.

But my mother died, leaving me still a little boy, whereas the mother of these men, Plangon, who was a handsome woman, maintained her connection with him both before and after that; so that it was much more likely that for the sake of the living woman, with whom he was in love all this time, he would dishonor the son of her who was dead, than that for my sake and my dead mother’s he would refuse to acknowledge the children of her who was living and maintaining her connection with him.

My opponent, however, has come to such a pitch of audacity as to declare that my father made feast for him on the tenth day.[*](See the Introduction to the preceding oration.) And in regard to this he has put in depositions of Timocrates[*](Perhaps to be identified with the Timocrates against whom Demosthenes delivered Oration 24 (Dem. 24).) and Promachus alone, who are in no way related to my father, and were not friends of his. The testimony they have borne is so patently false, that, whereas you all know that Boeotus by instituting proceedings forced my father against his will to acknowledge him these men, like witnesses to a summons—and only two of them—depose that he made a feast for this fellow on the tenth day!

Is there anyone of you who can believe that? And assuredly it is not open to him to say this, either—that when he was a little child my father acknowledged him, but that when he was grown he scorned him because of some quarrel with the mother of these men;[*](Compare the parallel passage in the preceding oration, Dem. 39.23.) for surely man and wife are much more apt, in cases where they are at variance with one another, to become reconciled for the sake of their children than, because of their enmity toward each other, to hate their common children as well. If, therefore, he attempts to say this, do not permit him to brazen it out.

And should he go on to talk about the actions brought by them, which the arbitrator decided in my favor, and claim that he was caught by me unprepared, remember, first, that it was not a short time that he had in which to prepare himself, but a great many years, and secondly, that it was he who brought the suit, so that it was much more likely that I should be taken unprepared by him than he by me.

And further, all those who were present before the arbitrator have given testimony that Boeotus was present when the arbitrator gave his decision in my favor and that he did not appeal to the court, but acquiesced in the decision. And yet it seems to me a strange thing that, whereas other men, who consider that they are being wronged,[*](That is, by the arbitrator’s award.) bring before you on appeal cases even of the slightest import, this fellow, who had brought suit against me to recover a talent as the marriage-portion, and had this suit decided against him by the arbitrator, unjustly, as he claims, should acquiesce in the decision.

Ah, but it may be said that he is a man who loves peace and hates litigation. I could indeed wish, men of the jury, that he were a man of that type. But here is the truth: you are so generous and so kind toward your fellow-men that you did not deem it right to banish from the city even the sons of the Thirty Tyrants[*](In 403 B.C.); but Boeotus, plotting against me with Menecles, who is the prime mover in all these schemes, having managed to get up a quarrel that from disputes and revilings should come to blows, cut his own head, and summoned me before the Areopagus on a charge of murderous assault, with the intention of driving me into exile from the city.

And if Euthydicus, the physician, to whom these men had gone in the first instance, asking him to make a cut on the head of Boeotus—had not told to the court of the Areopagus the whole truth, this man would have taken such vengeance upon me, who was guilty of no wrong toward him, as you would not try to inflict on those who were guilty of the greatest wrongs toward you.

That I may not be thought to be slandering him, read, please, the depositions.

The Depositions

This great and formidable contest, then, he got up against me, not as a simple-minded fellow, but as a conspirator and a villain. But after this, instead of the name, Boeotus, which my father had given him, as has been proved to you by witnesses, after my father’s death he had his name inscribed on the list of the demesmen as Mantitheus, and being further addressed by the name of the same father and the same deme as I myself, he not only forced a retrial of the case in which I am now suing him,[*](By claiming that his name was Mantitheus, not Boeotus, he made of no effect the judgement rendered against him under the latter name.) but when you had elected me taxiarch, he came in person to the court to pass the probationary test[*](Every Athenian elected to public office had to pass a scrutiny (δοκιμασία) and prove his full citizenship.); and when judgement had been given against him in an ejectment suit, he declared that it was not against him but against me that the judgement had been given.

And to sum up the matter for you, he gave me so much trouble that he compelled me to bring suit against him regarding the name, not in order to get money from him, men of the jury, but that, if it should appear to you that I am being outrageously treated and am suffering grievous wrongs, he may go on being called Boeotus, as my father named him.

To prove that I am speaking the truth in this also, take, please, the depositions bearing on these matters.

The Depositions

In addition to all this, on the charge that, when I was on military service and had collected mercenaries with Ameinias[*](Apparently an otherwise unknown commander of mercenary troops, under whom Mantitheus served as taxiarch.)(seeing that I was well-provided with funds from other sources, and had collected from Mytilene from your proxenus[*](A state representative in a foreign land, somewhat analogous to our consul.) Apollonides and the friends of our city three hundred Phocaic staters,[*](The stater of Phocaea (a city on the coast of Ionia) was a gold coin somewhat heavier than the stater of Cyzicus (Dem. 34.23).) and had spent that sum upon these troops, in order that a matter might be prosecuted which was of advantage to you and to them alike)—

for this he brings suit against me, alleging that I had collected a debt due to my father from the city of the Mytileneans. In this he was seeking to serve Cammys,[*](A tyrant of Mytilene, otherwise unknown.) tyrant of Mytilene, who is an enemy of Athens and a private enemy of mine.

But to prove that my father at the time received in person the reward which the people of Mytilene voted him, and that no debt was owing to him in Mytilene, I will produce a deposition of your friends.

The Deposition

I could mention many other outrageous acts of which Boeotus has been guilty, men of the jury, both against myself and against you; but I am compelled to pass them by as but little water is left me in the clepsydra.[*](The water-clock.) I think, however, that, even as it is, you have been shown conclusively that the same man who got up against me a suit involving the risk of banishment, and sued me on charges which concerned me not at all, is not one who would have come before the arbitrator unprepared; so that if he tries to say anything about this, I imagine that you will not tolerate it.

If, however, he declares that he offered to turn over all matters at issue between us to Conon,[*](The grandson of the famous Athenian general of this name.) son of Timotheus, for arbitration, and that I refused to submit them, be sure that he will be trying to mislead you. I, for my part, was ready to submit all matters upon which a decision had not yet been rendered, either to Conon or to any other impartial arbitrator whom Boeotus might choose; but matters regarding which the arbitrator had given a decision in my favor, after Boeotus had thrice appeared before him and contested the case,—a decision in which Boeotus acquiesced, as witnesses have testified to you,—these matters, I thought, could not justly be reopened.

For to what final settlement could we ever have come, if I had made invalid a decision given by an arbitrator in accordance with the laws, and had referred the same charge to the decision of another arbitrator?—especially as I knew full well that, even though in relation to other men it is not proper to insist overmuch on the decisions of arbitrators, yet it is peculiarly fair to deal thus with Boeotus.