Apollodorus Against Polycles

Demosthenes

Demosthenes. Vol. VI. Private Orations, L-LVIII, In Neaeram, LIX. Murray, A. T., translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1939 (printing).

But why it was that he was especially incensed against me and treated me despitefully, and would never on any occasion listen to a word from me regarding any matter, I wish to show you clearly, that you may understand that I cared less at that time for my own comfort or for the general’s power than for the people of Athens and the laws, and that I endured ill-treatment and abuse, which were far more grievous to me than the expenses I incurred.

For, while the fleet was lying at Thasos, a despatch-boat came from Methonê in Macedonia to Thasos, bringing a man with letters from Callistratus to Timomachus, which, as I afterward learned, contained a request that he should send the swiftest-sailing ship he had to bring Callistratus to him. At once, then, at daybreak the next morning, the officer from the general came and ordered me to summon my crew to the ship.

When it was manned, Callippus, the son of Philon, of Aexonê,[*]( Aexone, a deme of the tribe Cecropis.) came on board, and ordered the pilot to steer the course for Macedonia. When we had reached a place on the opposite mainland, a trading post of the Thasians, and had gone ashore and were getting our dinner, one of the sailors, Callicles, the son of Epitrephes, of Thria,[*](Thria, a deme of the tribe Oeneïs) came up to me, and said that he wished to speak to me about a matter which concerned myself. I bade him speak on, and he said that he wanted to make what return he could for the help I had given him in his need.

Do you know, then, he asked, for what purpose you are making this voyage, and where you are going? When I replied that I did not know, he said, Then I will tell you; for you must learn this in order to plan your action aright. You are going, said he, to bring Callistratus, an exile whom the Athenians have twice condemned to death, from Methonê to Thasos to Timomachus, his kinsman by marriage. I have found this out, he said, from the servants of Callippus. For your own part, then, if you are wise, you will not permit any exile to come on board the ship; for the laws forbid it.