Against Boeotus II

Demosthenes

Demosthenes. Vol. IV. Orations, XXVII-XL. Murray, A. T., translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1936 (printing).

For come, suppose someone should indict him for the usurpation of the rights of citizenship, declaring that my father denied on oath that this man was his son; could he rely on anything else to meet this charge than that, because of their mother’s oath and the decision of the arbitrators, my father was forced to abide by the award?

It would, then, be an outrageous thing, if this man, after having become a citizen of your city through an arbitrator’s decision, and having secured a share of my inheritance, and obtained all that was fair, should be thought by you to have any justice in his claim, when he demanded the reopening of the suits in which I won my acquittal, when he was present and argued against it, and acquiesced in the verdict; just as though, when it is to his interest, awards ought to be valid, but, when it is not to his interest, his opinion should have more weight than decisions rendered in accordance with your laws.

He is such a crafty schemer that his purpose even in this proposal of arbitration was not made that he might be rid of his disputes with me, but that, as he had for eleven years previously carried on his knavery, so now, by rendering invalid the decisions given in my favor by the arbitrator, he might afresh institute his malicious proceedings against me, and elude the present suit.

Here is a convincing proof of this. He would not accept the challenge which I gave him according to the laws; and when I had previously referred the suit about the name to Xenippus, whom he had proposed as arbitrator, he forbade him to render any decision.

That I am speaking the truth on these matters also you will learn from the deposition and the challenge.

The Deposition. The Challenge

This challenge, then, he did not accept, wishing rather to lay a snare for me and to delay the suit as long as he possibly could; and now, as I learn, he will accuse not only me, but my father as well, alleging that my father wronged him in many ways in order to show favor to me. But I beg you, men of the jury, as you would yourselves deem it an unseemly thing to be evil spoken of by your own children, not to allow this man either to speak evil of his father.

For it would indeed be an outrageous thing when you yourselves, after having come to terms with those who in the time of the oligarchy put to death without trial numbers of your countrymen, abide by your compact with them,[*](The allusion is to the amnesty declared after the expulsion of the Thirty Tyrants. For this gentleness of the democracy see Aristot. Ath. Pol. 22.4.) as men of honor should do, that you should allow this man, who was reconciled with my father while he lived, and won many advantages to which he had no right, now to renew the quarrel and to speak evil of that father when he is no more. Do not suffer this, men of the jury.

If it be possible, prevent him from acting in this way; but if he persists in defying you and in speaking evil of my father, remember that he is bearing witness against himself that he is no son of his. For those who are true-born children, even though they may quarrel with their fathers while they are alive yet speak well of them when they are dead; whereas those who are accounted sons, but are not in truth children of their supposed fathers, quarrel with them without scruple while they are alive, and think nothing of slandering them when they are dead.

And, besides, think how absurd it is that this fellow should abuse my father for his failings toward him, when it was thanks to this father’s failings[*](There is a play on the double sense of ἁμαρτάνειν, which is often used as a euphemism for the frailties of love.—Paley.) that he became a citizen of your state. I, on my part, have, thanks to the mother of these men, been deprived of two-thirds of my property, but for all that I have too much respect for you to speak disparagingly of her.

But Boeotus feels no shame in disparaging before you the man whom he compelled to become his father, and has even come to such a pitch of vulgarity that, although the laws forbid speaking ill even of other men’s fathers after they are dead, he will slander the man whose son he claims to be; whereas it would be proper for him to show resentment if anyone else spoke evil of him.

I fancy, men of the jury, that, when he is at a loss for anything else to say, he will undertake to speak evil of me, and will try to bring me into disrepute, rehearsing at length how I was reared and educated and married in my father’s house, while he had no share in any of these advantages. But I bid you bear in mind that my mother died leaving me a child, so that the interest of her marriage-portion was sufficient to rear and educate me;

whereas Plangon, the mother of these men, maintained them and a host of female servants in her own house, and herself lived lavishly, having my father ready, because of his passion for her, to supply the funds for all this, and forcing him to heavy expenditures. She therefore spent far more of his property than I did, so that I might with far better reason bring charges against them than they against me.

For, besides all the rest, in connection with my father I borrowed twenty minae from Blepaeus the banker, for the purchase of some mining properties, and after my father’s death I shared the mines with these men, but had to pay the loan myself. I also borrowed another thousand drachmae from Lysistratus of Thoricus for my father’s funeral, and have personally paid the debt.

That I am speaking the truth on these matters also you will learn from these depositions.

The Depositions

When I am thus so clearly at a disadvantage in so many respects, shall this man now by making a great to-do and outcry about his wrongs, rob me also of my mother’s marriage-portion? But do not, men of the jury, I beg you by Zeus and the Gods, do not be overwhelmed by the noise he makes. He is a violent fellow, violent and ready to go to all lengths; and he is so unscrupulous that, if he has no witnesses to prove a fact, he will say that it is well known to you, men of the jury,—a trick to which all those have recourse who have no just argument to advance.

If he shall try any such trick, do not tolerate it; expose him. What anyone of you does not know, let his deem that his neighbor does not know either. Let him demand that Boeotus prove clearly whatever statements he may make, and not shirk the truth by declaring that you know things about which he will have no just argument to advance; since I, on my part, men of the jury, although you all know the way in which my father was compelled to adopt these men, am none the less suing them at law, and have brought forward witnesses responsible for their testimony.[*](Liable, that is, to prosecution for perjury, if their testimony be proved false.)

And yet the risk is not the same for both of us. On my part, if you are now led astray by these men, it will not be open to me to bring suit again for the marriage-portion; but they, if they claim that the arbitrator was wrong in giving his decision in my favor, as at that time they had the right to appeal to your court, so now again will be permitted, if they so wish, to recover their rights from me in your court.

I, if you leave me in the lurch, which I pray may not happen, shall have no means of giving a dowry to my daughter, whose own father I am, although, if you see her size, you would deem she was not my daughter but my sister[*](See above, Dem. 40.12.); but these men, if you come to my aid, will pay nothing out of their own property, but will restore to me what is my own from the house which by common agreement we reserved for the settlement of the marriage-portion, but in which these men have been living by themselves.

For it is not fitting that I, having a daughter of marriageable age, should dwell with men of their sort, who are not only themselves living licentious lives, but who also bring into the house a host of others of like stamp with themselves; nay, by Zeus, I do not deem it safe to live in the same house with them myself. When they have thus openly laid a plot, and got up a charge against me before the Areopagus, do you suppose there is any poisoning or any other such villainy from which they would abstain?

Besides all the rest (for this has occurred to me just now), they have come to such a pitch of audacity as to have put in a deposition of Crito, alleging that he has purchased from me my one-third share in the house. Now that this is false you will easily perceive; for in the first place Crito does not live so economically as to be able to purchase a house from someone else, but so extravagantly and licentiously that he spends the property of others as well as his own. Again, he is not now this man’s witness, but rather my adversary. For who among you is ignorant that witnesses are those who have no interest in the matter at issue in the suit; while adversaries are those who are involved in the matters in regard to which one goes to law with them? The latter is the case with Crito.

And furthermore, out of all your number, men of the jury, out of all the host of the rest of the Athenians, not a single other person has testified that he was present at this sale; Timocrates alone, like a god from the machine,[*](The deus ex machina of the tragic stage.) testified that my father gave a feast to Boeotus on the tenth day (and Timocrates is of the same age as the present defendant!). Timocrates declares that he has perfect knowledge of all that is for the advantage of these men; and now on his own sole authority he testifies that he was present with Crito when he bought the house from me. Who among you will believe this? Not one, of course; especially since I am not now suing about the house to determine whether Crito bought it or not, but about the marriage-portion which, seeing that my mother brought it with her, the laws declare that I should recover.

Therefore, as I have proved to you by an abundance of testimony and of circumstantial evidence that my mother did bring a talent as her dowry; that I have not recovered it from my father’s estate; and that the house was set apart by us to secure its payment; so do you demand of Boeotus that he prove to you, either that I am not speaking the truth, or that it is not right that I should recover the marriage-portion; for these are the questions regarding which you are now going to cast your votes.