Against Theocrines

For the proposer of this law, in his desire that those of the merchants who were guilty of wrongdoing should not go unpunished, and that those who were innocent should not be annoyed, absolutely forbade a person of this sort to make denunciations unless he were confident that he could prove in your court that the things charged in his denunciation had actually taken place; but that if any one of those who bring baseless charges should transgress this law, he should be liable to criminal information and arrest.

(To the clerk.) However, read them the law itself; for it will explain the matter more clearly than I can do.

The Law

You hear, men of the jury, the penalties which the laws ordain for the one who brings baseless charges. Well then, if Micon has done any of the acts which Theocrines in his denunciation charged him with doing, and Theocrines has compromised the matter and come to terms with the man, he is guilty of a crime against you all, and would justly be fined a thousand drachmae. But if Micon sailed to a port to which he might legitimately sail (let the defendant choose either alternative), and Theocrines none the less denounces and summons him, he is bringing a baseless charge against the ship-owners, and has violated not only the former law, but also the one just read, and has convicted himself of dishonesty both in his words and in his actions.

For what man would have desisted from an honest course of action by which he would have received the share of the money which the law allows, and have rather chosen to make a trifling gain by a compromise and render himself amenable to these laws, when, as I said just now, he might have received half the sum involved in the denunciation? No man in the world would have done so, men of the jury, unless he were conscious that he was bringing baseless and malicious charges.

These are two laws, then, which this man, who indicts others for illegal acts, has himself violated. There is a third law also, which enacts that any one of the citizens who pleases may lodge criminal informations against those who owe money to the treasury, or if any man is indebted to Athena or to any one of the rest of the gods, or of the eponymous heroes.[*](The legendary figures after whom the various tribes were named. They each had their tribal shrines.) In this class the defendant will be shown to belong; for he owes, and has not paid, seven hundred drachmae, which he was condemned at the audit to pay to the eponymus of his tribe.

(To the clerk.) Read that part of the law.

The Law

Stop reading. (To Theocrines.) Do you hear, fellow, what it says?—or to any one of the eponymous heroes.

(To the clerk.) Read the deposition of the members of the tribe.

The Deposition

It is likely indeed, men of the jury, that the defendant would have regard for few persons and for those who spend most of their time at sea, as Micon does, when he felt neither fear nor shame in the presence of his tribesmen, in the first place, when administering their public business in such a way that they convicted him of embezzlement, and in the second place, although he had been fined and knew well that the laws forbade him to prefer indictments until he should pay, when defying the laws and holding that, while other state-debtors could exercise no public function, he had the right to be superior to the laws.

He will, to be sure, assert that it is his grandfather and not himself who is entered on the register as a debtor to the state, and in regard to this will talk at length to prove that it is he. I myself cannot say with certainty which of the two it is; but supposing it to be as he will claim, I think that you will be under far greater obligation to convict him, if this is the case.

For if his grandfather was a state-debtor long ago and the law ordains that he be his grandfather’s heir—if, though he long ago lost the right to prefer indictments, he still continued to prefer them; and if he is going to assume that he ought to be acquitted just because he is a scoundrel of the third generation, there will be no justice in his plea, men of the jury.

To prove that it is admitted by Theocrines himself that this debt is his own and that he arranged with the members of the tribe on behalf of his brother and himself for its payment, and that no jury which has regard to its oath could honorably hold that this criminal information is without foundation, (to the clerk) take, please, the bill which Scironides introduced in the meeting of the tribe.

For this man Theocrines came forward, admitted the debt and in the presence of the members of the tribe promised to pay it, when he saw that we were coming up and were planning to take a copy of what stood written in the register.

The Decree

With much better reason, men of Athens, would you commend the members of the tribe Leontis, who compelled Theocrines to pay the seven minae, than this fellow himself.

There is now a fourth law (for I admit that I have looked closely into most of the things which the defendant has done) according to which this Theocrines owes five hundred drachmae, since his father had not paid a fine of that amount to which he had been sentenced for having sought to maintain that the maid-servant of Cephisodorus was a free woman.[*](In such cases, if the parties could not come to an agreement as to whether the person in question was slave or free, the matter came into court. In the present instance the father of Theocrines had evidently not been able to make good his claim that the servant in question was a free woman, and had been ordered to pay damages to his adversary and a like sum (hence the compound verb, προσῶφλεν) as a fine to the state. See Meier and Schomann, 2. pp. 658 ff.) No; he fixed things with Ctesicles, the speech-writer, who was acting in the matter for his opponents, in such a way that he should neither pay the damages nor be listed on the acropolis as a debtor to the state.

Despite this fact, I maintain that Theocrines still owes the money according to the law. For if Ctesicles, the resident alien, did make an agreement with this fellow, as one scoundrel with another, that one sentenced to pay the fine in accordance with the law should not be handed over to the collectors, the state should not on that account be robbed of the penalties imposed by the laws. No indeed; it is right for the parties in a suit to make whatever arrangement they may mutually agree upon in private affairs, but in matters which concern the public they must act as the law ordains.