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

I wish now, men of the jury, to instruct you in detail also regarding the other claims which I make. They received from the wife of Polyeuctus a bowl, which they pawned together with some pieces of jewelry, and this they have not redeemed and brought into the general account, as Demophilus, to whom it was pawned, will testify. They have also some stuff for hangings,[*](The word literally means tent, and it is so rendered by some scholars in this passage. Harpocration takes it to mean a parasol.) which they received, but they do not account for this either; and many more articles of the same sort. And finally, although my wife advanced a mina of silver and expended it on her father’s behalf for the feast of the dead,[*](Properly, the Nemeseia, a festival celebrated every year on the fifth day of the month Boedromion (September).) the defendant refuses to contribute his share even of this; nay, what he has received he keeps; of other items he receives his due portion; but these claims he thus openly refuses to meet.

Now that these matters too may not be left neglected, (to the clerk) take, please, the depositions regarding them all.

The Depositions

It may well be, men of the jury, that Spudias will make no statement to meet these facts; for he will not be able to do so, clever though he is; but will accuse Polyeuctus and his wife, and will declare that they did all these things under my influence and as favors to me, and that he is being greatly injured in many other respects, and has brought action against me; for this is what he undertook to say before the arbitrator also.

But for my part, men of the jury, in the first place I do not think that a defence of that sort is legitimate, or that it is proper, when one is manifestly shown to be in the wrong, for him to shift the charges and have recourse to accusation and calumny; nay, for his counter-charges, if he is suffering any wrong, he will plainly receive satisfaction, but for the claims made on him, he will give it. For how could I now defend myself against the slanders of these men, if I passed over the matters upon which you are to give your verdict?

In the next place I wonder, if he had true and just demands to make, why it was that, when our friends wished to settle our differences, and many conferences were held, he could not abide by their decision. And yet who could better have exposed the baselessness of claims advanced by him or by me than those who were present at all these transactions, who knew the facts as well as we did ourselves, and who were impartial friends of us both?

But this was plainly not to the interest of my opponent—that he should be openly convicted by our friends and find a settlement in this way. For do not imagine, men of the jury, that men who know all these facts, and who now at their own risk are giving testimony in my favor, would then, when they had been put under oath, have formed a different conclusion about them. However, though you had none of these facts to aid you, even so it is not difficult to form an opinion as to which of the two parties is speaking the truth.

For regarding the house, if he maintains that Polyeuctus was induced by me to order that mortgage-pillars be set up for the thousand drachmae, yet surely, Spudias, I did not use my influence to induce the witnesses to give false testimony in my interest,—witnesses who were present when he betrothed to me his daughter, who knew that I received less than the entire marriage portion, who heard him when he acknowledged that he was in my debt and also when he had introduced Leocrates as the one who should make payment, and who finally were present when the will was made. For with all these persons it was no longer a question of favoring me in these matters, but of risking a charge of giving false testimony, if they deposed to what was not the truth. Let us, then, have no more of that matter; but what will you say to this, Spudias?

And see that you give these gentlemen a precise answer. If he does not, do you all demand it of him. For, when Polyeuctus gave these directions in his will, the defendant’s wife was present, and you may be sure that she reported to him the will of her father, especially if he did not receive an equal share, but was at a disadvantage in all respects; and the defendant himself was invited to be present, so that it is not open to him to say that we managed this in secret and kept them in the dark. For although he was invited to be present, he said that he was busy himself, but that it would be enough if his wife were there. What more would you have?

When Aristogenes gave him an exact account of all these matters, even then he made no comment, and though Polyeuctus lived on more than five days after this, he neither showed any vexation on going to the house, nor made any protest, nor did his wife, who was present from the first on all these occasions. It would appear, then, that Polyeuctus was not induced by me to favor me in these matters; the act was your own. Keep these facts, then, clearly in your minds, men of the jury, and if he now tries to make any slanderous statements about the matter, confront him with them.

But first, that you may be fully assured that matters are as I have stated, hear the witnesses.(To the clerk.) Read.

The Witnesses

Well then, men of the jury, in the matter of the one thousand drachmae, to prove that Polyeuctus mortgaged the house to me honestly, and for an existing debt, I have the testimony of my opponent himself and his wife in addition to these other witnesses whose depositions have been put in; for they concurred at the time, and made no objection either to Polyeuctus who lived so many days after, or to Aristogenes, when they first heard of the will. But assuredly, if the house was honestly mortgaged, it is impossible for you, if you bear the law in mind, to acquit Spudias as to this part of the case.

Now consider also the matter of the twenty minae, which he does not bring into the account; for in this again the defendant himself will be my strongest witness—not by words, heaven knows, such as he utters now in opposing my suit—words are a criterion of no worth—but by manifest act. By doing what, men of the jury? To this I bid you now to give close heed, in order that, if he really dares to utter any slanders about the mother of our wives or about the documents, your knowledge of the facts may make it impossible for him to deceive you by his talk.