Against Olympiodorus

It is perhaps necessary, men of the jury, even for those who have neither practice nor skill in speaking to come into court when they have been wronged by anyone, especially if it be by those who should be the last to wrong them, as has now come to pass with me. For, although I have been unwilling, men of the jury, to go to law with Olympiodorus, who is a relative of mine and whose sister is my wife, I have been forced to do so because of the magnitude of the wrongs which he has done me.

If I were entering upon this course, men of the jury, without having been wronged, or were trumping up a false charge against Olympiodorus, or if I were unwilling to refer the matter to men who are friends both of Olympiodorus and myself, or if I were refusing to adopt any other fair course of action, be assured that I should be thoroughly ashamed, and should think myself a worthless sort of fellow: but as it is, the loss I have suffered at the hands of Olympiodorus is no small one; I have not refused to accept any referee, and I swear by Zeus the Supreme that it is not willingly, but with the utmost possible reluctance, that I have been forced by the defendant to bring this suit.

I beg of you, therefore, men of the jury, when you have heard us both and have sifted the matter for yourselves, preferably to find some settlement of our quarrel and dismiss us, and thus become benefactors of us both; but if you cannot succeed in this, of the courses remaining open to you, I beg you to give your vote to him whose plea is just.First, then, the clerk shall read to you the depositions which show that it is not I who am responsible for bringing the case into court, but the defendant himself.

(To the clerk.) Read the depositions.

The Depositions

That I offered reasonable and fitting terms to Olympiodorus has been testified to you, men of the jury, by those who were present. Since, however, he does not choose to do anything that is right, it is necessary for me to set forth before you the matters in which I have been wronged by him. But the story is a short one.

There was a certain Comon of Halae,[*](There were two demes of this name, one on the east coast of Attica and the other on the Saronic Gulf. The former belonged to the tribe Aegeis, the latter to the tribe Cecropis. There is nothing to show which one is here referred to.) men of the, jury, a relative of ours. This Comon died without issue after a very short illness; he had lived, however, many years, and was an old man when he died. When I saw that he could not possibly recover, I sent for the defendant Olympiodorus that he might be with us, and join with us in taking all proper measures. And Olympiodorus, when he had come to me and to my wife, who is his own sister, aided us in making all the arrangements.

While we were thus occupied, this fellow Olympiodorus suddenly flung at me the statement that his mother also was related to Comon, the dead man, and that it was fair that he, too, should receive his share of all the property which Comon left. I for my part, men of the jury, as I knew that he was lying and trying to put a bold face on it, and that there was nobody else nearer of kin to Comon than myself, became at first exceedingly wroth and indignant at the shamelessness of his claim; presently, however, I reflected that it was not a proper time for anger, and I made answer to him, that for the present it was our duty to bury the dead man and do all else that custom called for, and that after we should have discharged all these duties we would talk with one another.

And Olympiodorus, men of the jury, assented to this, and said that I was quite right. So when we had finished all this, and had done all that custom required, we called in all our relatives and quietly discussed with one another the claims which this fellow advanced. Now, men of the jury, why should I weary you or myself by relating the various differences which arose between us as we talked these matters over?

The conclusion to which we came, however, it is necessary for you to hear. I myself reached the decision regarding his claims, and he regarding mine, that we should each take half of what Comon left, and there should be no further unpleasantness between us. I chose, men of the jury, voluntarily to share the inheritance with him rather than come into court and risk a trial with the fellow, who is a relative, and to say unpleasant things of one who is a brother of my wife and the uncle of my children, and hear disagreeable things from him.

Thinking of all these things I came to terms with him.

After this we drew up written articles of agreement regarding all matters involved, and swore solemn oaths to one another that we would in very truth divide fairly and honestly all the visible property that there was, and that neither of us would in any respect take advantage of the other in regard to Comon’s estate; that we would make joint inquiry for the rest, and would act in common in forming whatever plans should from time to time be necessary.

For we suspected, men of the jury, that others besides ourselves would come to lay claim to the estate of Comon. For instance, there was my brother, on my father’s but not my mother’s side, who was out of the country; and, if anyone else wished to put in a claim, there was no way for us to prevent it; for the laws ordain that anyone who chooses may put in a claim. Foreseeing all these contingencies, we drew up our articles of agreement and swore our oaths in order that neither of us might have the opportunity of doing anything whatever independently, whether he should wish to do so or not, but that we should do everything by mutual agreement.

And we called to witness this agreement, first the gods in whose name we exchanged our oaths, and our own relatives, and moreover Androcleides of Acharnae,[*](Acharnae was a deme of the tribe Oeneïs.) with whom we deposited the articles.

I wish now, men of the jury, to read the law in accordance with which we drew up our agreement, and deposition of the person who has the articles in his keeping.

(To the clerk.) Read the law first.

The Law

Now read the deposition of Androcleides.

The Deposition

When we had exchanged oaths, and the articles had been deposited with Androcleides, I divided the property into two shares, men of the jury. One share consisted of the house in which Comon himself had lived, and the slaves engaged in weaving sackcloth, and the other of another house and the slaves engaged in grinding colors. Whatever ready money Comon left in the bank of Heracleides had been nearly all spent on his burial and the other funeral rites, and on the building of his tomb.

And after I had divided the property into these two shares, I gave Olympiodorus his choice to take whichever of the two shares he pleased; and he chose the color-grinders and the small house, while I took the weavers and the dwelling-house.

This is what each of us had. Now in the share of this fellow Olympiodorus there was a man, one of the color-grinders, whom Comon used to regard as most faithful to himself; the man’s name was Moschion. This slave had a pretty good knowledge of all Comon’s other affairs, and in particular knew where the money was which Comon kept in the house;

and Comon, who was oldish and who had confidence in him, was unaware that this slave Moschion was stealing his money. He first stole from him one thousand drachmae, which sum was kept separate from the rest of the money, and afterwards seventy minae more. He was doing this without Comon’s suspecting it, and the fellow kept all this money in his own possession.

Soon after we had divided the shares between us, men of the jury, we became suspicious, and found out something about this money; and as a result of this suspicion Olympiodorus here and I decided to put the man to the torture. And the fellow, men of the jury, before he was put to the torture, voluntarily confessed that he had stolen a thousand drachmae from Comon, and said that he still had in his quarters all the money which had not been spent; but of the larger sum he did not say a word at that time.

So he paid back about six hundred drachmae. And of this sum which the man paid back we made a just and fair division in accordance with the oaths which we had sworn and the agreement deposited with Androcleides, I taking one half and the defendant Olympiodorus the other.

Not long after this, as a result of the suspicion against the slave in regard to the money, the defendant had the man bound and again put to the torture. He did this independently by himself without calling me in, although he had sworn to make all inquiries and do everything in concert with me. And the fellow, men of the jury, when racked by the torture made further confession that he had stolen from Comon the seventy minae; and he restored this entire sum to the defendant Olympiodorus.

I, on my part, men of the jury, when I learned that the man had been tortured, and that he had restored the money, supposed that Olympiodorus would pay me half the amount, just as he had before paid me half of the one thousand drachmae. At first I did not press him, thinking that he would recognize his obligation and arrange matters for my interest and his own, so that each of us should have what was fair in accordance with our oaths and our mutual agreement to share equally in all that Comon left;

but since he delayed, and did nothing, I had a talk with this man Olympiodorus, and demanded that I receive my share of the money. But Olympiodorus here kept finding one excuse after another, and putting me off. Moreover, at this very time some other people filed claims to the estate of Comon, and Callippus, my brother on my father’s side, returned from abroad; and he too filed a claim for half the estate.