Apollodorus Against Polycles

In suits of this nature, men of the jury, it is fitting that those who are to render a decision, as well as the litigants themselves, should give the closest attention. For the suit is not a private one concerning Polycles and myself alone, but it touches also the interests of the state as well. In cases where the charges indeed are of a private nature, but the injury is public, it is surely fitting that you should listen and decide aright. If I had come before you quarrelling with Polycles about a contract of some other sort, the contest would have concerned Polycles and myself alone; but as it is, the question concerns the succession to a ship, and extra trierarchal expenses for five months and six days, and it concerns also the laws, whether they are to be in force, or not.

It seems to me, therefore, to be necessary to explain all the facts to you from the beginning. And by the gods, men of the jury, I beg you not to think that I am talking idly, if I set forth at some length what I have expended and what I have done, to show that my several services were rendered opportunely, and that they were helpful to the state. If anyone is able to show that I am uttering falsehoods, let him get up in the time allotted to me and disprove whatever statement I may make to you which he holds to be false. But if my statements are true, and no one would contradict them save the defendant, I make of you all a request that is fair.

All you who were in the army and were present in the campaign, call to mind and tell to those who sit by you my own efforts and the troubles and distresses in which the state was involved at that crisis, in order that you may know from this evidence what manner of man I am in carrying out the orders you lay upon me. And all of you who stayed at home, listen to me in silence, while I set forth before you all the facts, and produce in support of every statement that I make the laws and decrees both of the senate and the people, and the testimony of witnesses.

On the twenty-fourth day of the month Metageitnion[*]( Metageitnion corresponds to the latter half of August and the prior half of September.) in the archonship of Molon,[*](The archonship of Molon falls in 362 B.C.) when an assembly had been held and tidings of many serious events had been brought before you, you voted that the trierarchs (of whom I was one) should launch their ships. It is not necessary for me to go into details regarding the crisis which had at that time befallen the state; you of yourselves know that Tenos[*]( Tenos, one of the Cyclades islands in the Aegean Sea, had been captured by the fleet on Alexander of Pherae, who at this time was master of Thessaly.) had been seized by Alexander, and its people had been reduced to slavery;