Against Spudias

This man Spudias and I, men of the jury, are married to two sisters, daughters of Polyeuctus. Polyeuctus having died without male issue, I am forced to go to law with the defendant in regard to the property which has been left. And if, men of the jury, I had not shown all zeal and eagerness in my desire to find a settlement and to submit the matters at issue to our friends, I should have blamed myself for not choosing to suffer a trifling loss rather than engage in a troublesome lawsuit.

But, as it is, the more gentleness and consideration I used in talking with the defendant, the more contempt he showed toward me. And now it appears that in my contest with him we are in no sense on equal terms, but he can take the matter lightly, since he has been accustomed to come often before you, whereas I fear this very thing, that because of my lack of experience I may prove unable to explain my case to you. None the less, men of the jury, I beg you to give heed.

Polyeuctus was a man of Teithras,[*](Teithras was a deme of the tribe Oeneïs.) not unknown, it may well be, to some of you. This Polyeuctus, since he had no male children, adopted Leocrates, the brother of his own wife; but since he had two daughters by the sister of Leocrates, he gave the elder to me in marriage with a portion of forty minae, and the younger to Leocrates.[*](Marriage between uncle and niece was allowed in ancient Athens. A man might even marry his half-sister (See Dem. 57.2).)

So matters stood, when a quarrel came about between Polyeuctus and Leocrates, as to the nature of which I know of nothing which it is incumbent upon me to relate, and Polyeuctus took away his daughter[*](This can mean only that he induced his daughter to go before the Archon and demand a divorce.) and gave her in marriage to this man Spudias. After this Leocrates, being greatly incensed, brought suit against Polyeuctus and Spudias here, and they were forced to render an accounting in regard to all the matters at issue, and in the end a settlement was reached on the terms that Leocrates, on receiving back all that he had brought into the estate, should be reconciled with Polyeuctus, and that final releases should be given from all demands made by each upon the other.

Now, why is it, men of the jury, that I have told you this? Because I did not receive the whole of my wife’s portion, but a thousand drachmae were left unpaid with the understanding that I should receive them on the death of Polyeuctus; and so long as Leocrates was the heir of Polyeuctus, it was he who was responsible to me for the debt; but when Leocrates had left the family, and Polyeuctus was seriously ill, then, men of the jury, to secure the ten minae, I took a mortgage on this house, the rents accruing from which Spudias seeks to prevent me from collecting.

In the first place, then, I shall bring before you as witnesses those who were present when Polyeuctus betrothed his daughter to me with a portion of forty minae; then I shall prove that what I received was less by a thousand drachmae; and further that Polyeuctus always admitted that he was in my debt, and that he introduced to me Leocrates as guarantor[*](That is, as the person who would be responsible for payment after his own death.); and that at his death he directed by his will that pillars should be set up on the house in my favor for a thousand drachmae due on account of my wife’s portion.

(To the clerk.) Please call the witnesses.

The Witnesses

This, then, men of the jury, is one of the charges which I make against Spudias. And in this matter what stronger or more solid ground could I have in coming before you than the law which expressly ordains that, in all cases where men have given a mortgage, there shall be no right of action for them or for their heirs? But nevertheless it is to dispute this just provision that Spudias has come here.

A second claim, men of the jury, is the following: Aristogenes has deposed that Polyeuctus, when about to die, charged that there were due him from Spudias two minae with interest (this was the price of a domestic slave whom the defendant had bought from Polyeuctus, but had neither paid the money nor has now entered it in the general account); and furthermore there are eighteen hundred drachmae, regarding which I am myself at a loss to know what reasonable thing he will have to say.

He had borrowed the money from the wife of Polyeuctus, and there are papers which that lady left behind at her death, and the lady’s brothers are witnesses, for they were present at all times and questioned her on every point, that there might be no unpleasantness between us. It is, then, an outrageous and cruel thing, men of the jury, when I on my part, for everything which I either bought from Polyeuctus during his lifetime or received from his wife, have duly paid the price and the interest as well, and am now bringing into the general account everything which I owed,

that this fellow should show no regard either for your laws or for the will of Polyeuctus, or for the papers which have been left, or for those who knew the facts, but in the face of all this should have come into court to contest my plea.

(To the clerk.) Please take first the law which denies the right of action for mortgaged property against the holders of the mortgage, then the papers which were left, and the deposition of Aristogenes.

The Law. The Papers. The Deposition