Against Eubulides

When my name was called, the fellow jumped up and immediately began to vilify me, speaking at great length and with a loud voice, as he did just now. He produced no witnesses in support of his charges, either a member of the deme or one of the citizens at large, but urged the demesmen to pass a vote of expulsion.

I demanded that the vote be put off until the following day on account of the lateness of the hour and because I had no one present to speak in my behalf, and because the thing had come upon me so suddenly, and also that Eubulides might have the opportunity of making any charges that he pleased, and of producing any witnesses he might have, while I on my part might be able to defend myself before all my fellow-demesmen and to produce my relatives as witnesses; and I agreed to abide by whatever decision they might reach concerning me.

The fellow, however, paid no heed at all to my proposals, but proceeded at once to give ballots to the members of the deme who were present, without allowing me to make any defence or himself giving any convincing proof of his charges. Those who were in league with him then jumped up and gave their votes. It was dark, and they received from him two or three ballots apiece, and put them in the box. Here is a proof of this. Those who voted were not more than thirty in number, but the ballots, when counted, were more than sixty; so that we were all astounded.

To prove that I am stating the truth in this—that the ballots were not given out when all were present and that the ballots outnumbered those who voted—I will bring before you witnesses. It happens that I have at hand no friend of my own or any other Athenian to be my witness regarding these facts since the hour was so late and I had not asked anyone to be present, but I am forced to call as witnesses the very men who have wronged me. I have thereore put in writing for them statements which they will not be able to deny.

(To the clerk.) Read.

The Deposition

Now, men of the jury, if the Halimusians had been deciding on that day the status of all the members of the deme, it would have been reasonable for them to continue voting until late, in order that they might have fulfilled the requirements of your decree before departing to their homes. But, seeing that there were more than twenty of the demesmen left regarding whom they had to vote on the following day, and that the members of the deme had in any case to be convened again, what difficulty was there for Eubulides to order an adjournment until the morrow, and then let the demesmen vote upon my case first?

The reason was, men of the jury, that Eubulides knew very well that, if an opportunity of speaking should be granted me and if all the men of the deme should be present to support me and the ballots honestly given out, those who had leagued themselves with him would be nowhere!

How these people came to form their conspiracy against me I will tell you, if you wish to hear it, as soon as I shall have spoken about my parentage.

In the meantime what do I hold to be just, and what am I prepared to do, men of the jury? To show you that I am an Athenian on both my father’s and my mother’s side, and to produce to prove it witnesses whose veracity you will not question, and to break down the calumnies and the charges brought against me. It will rest with you, when you have heard my statements, if you conclude that I am a citizen and the victim of a conspiracy, to come to my rescue; but if you reach a different conclusion, to act in whatever way your regard for your oaths may bid you. I will begin with this proof.

They have maliciously asserted that my father spoke with a foreign accent. But that he was taken prisoner by the enemy in the course of the Decelean war[*](The latter period of the Peloponnesian war, 413-404 B.C., is often called the Decelean war, because the Lacedaemonians, who had again invaded Attica, occupied the town of Decelea, not far from Athens, and maintained a garrison there.) and was sold into slavery and taken to Leucas, and that he there fell in with Cleander,[*](The modern Leukas, or Santa Maura, off the west coast of Acarnania.) the actor, and was brought back here to his kinsfolk after a long lapse of time—all this they have omitted to state; but just as though it were right that I should be brought to ruin on account of his misfortunes, they have made his foreign accent the basis of a charge against him.

On my part, however, I think that these very facts will more than anything else help me to demonstrate that I am an Athenian.

In the first place, to prove that my father was taken prisoner and was ransomed, I will bring witnesses before you; then, that when he reached home he received from his uncles his share of the property; and furthermore, that neither among the members of the deme nor among those of the clan nor anywhere else did anyone ever accuse him (despite his foreign accent) with being a foreigner.

(To the clerk.) Please take the depositions.

The Depositions

You have heard, then, of my father’s being taken prisoner by the enemy and of the good fortune which brought him back here. To prove now that he was your fellow-citizen, men of the jury (for this you may depend upon as being the veritable truth), I will call as witnesses those of my relatives on my father’s side who are still living.

(To the clerk.) Call first, please, Thucritides and Charisiades; for their father Charisius was brother to my grandfather Thucritides and my grandmother Lysaretê, and uncle to my father (for my father had married his sister born of a different mother).[*](Such marriages were permissible under Athenian law.)