Against Evergus and Mnesibulus

And when the senate was going into a division on the question whether it should remand him to a jury-court or sentence him to a fine of five hundred drachmae, the highest penalty which the law allowed it to inflict, while all these men were making pleas and entreaties and sending any number of people to intercede for them, and offering us right there in the senate-chamber the inventory of the equipment due, and promising to submit the question of the assault to any one of the Athenians whom I should name, I consented that a fine of twenty-five drachmae[*](The text would naturally mean an additional fine, but the speaker is emphasizing his reasonableness in his treatment of his opponents. This was shown by his consenting to a fine of merely 5 drachmae, whereas it might have been 500 drachmae with confiscation of the defendant’s property. I think the προς- means a fine in addition to the other charges to which the defendant was already liable.) should be imposed upon Theophemus.

To prove that I am speaking the truth in this, I beg all of you who were senators in the archonship of Agathocles[*](This was in 356 B.C.) to tell the facts to those who sit by you, and I will bring before you as witnesses all those whom I have been able to find who were senators that year.

The Depositions

I, you see, men of the jury, showed myself thus reasonable toward these men. And yet the decree ordered the confiscation of the property, not only of those who had ship’s equipment and did not return it to the state, but also of anyone who, having such equipment, refused to sell it; such a scarcity of equipment was there in the city at that time.

(To the clerk.) Read the decree, please.

The Decree