Against Theocrines

(To the clerk.) Read, please, the law which declares that anyone who is adjudged to have wrongfully asserted the freedom of a slave shall pay half the sum assessed into the public treasury, and then read also the deposition of Cephisodorus.

The Law. The Deposition

Now read that law also, which declares that a man shall be regarded as a debtor from the day on which he incurs the fine, whether he has been entered on the public register or not.

The Law

In what other way, men of the jury, could an honest prosecutor show that the criminal information has been rightly brought against this Theocrines, and that he is liable, not only to the fine of a thousand drachmae, which forms the basis of the information, but to many other penalties as well? To my mind there is no other way. For surely you cannot expect that Theocrines will himself admit the indebtedness to your treasury and say that the criminal information has been lodged against him with justice. On the contrary, he will say anything rather than this. He will bring forward all manner of charges, alleging that a cabal is working against him, and that he has come into this danger because of the indictments which he has preferred for illegal actions.

For this is the last resource of those convicted on the facts of the case—to invent charges and excuses which will make you forget the question before you and give attention to arguments which are alien to the accusation. But I, men of the jury, if I had seen in the laws which have just been read a clause to this effect: these provisions regarding those who bring malicious charges shall be in force unless Theocrines, a criminal information having been laid against him, shall see fit to denounce Thucydides[*](This Thucydides was an orator of the party of Demosthenes.) or Demosthenes or any other of the men in public life, I should have kept quiet; but as it is, I find that no such excuse is taken into consideration in the laws, nor is it new, so that those now hearing it for the first time should pay attention to it; on the contrary it has been used ten thousand times by people on trial.

I am also told, men of the jury, by those who are older than I, that it is proper that in no case whatever should pardon be shown to one who transgresses the laws, but if pardon is to be shown, it should not be to those who are habitual offenders or to those who betray the laws for a bribe (surely not that!) but to those who through their own inexperience unintentionally transgress some provision of the law. No man, I take it, would say that Theocrines here belongs to this latter class, but on the contrary that there is no provision of the law with which he is not acquainted.

You must, therefore, watch him, and have regard neither to my words nor to those which will be spoken by his side. For it is not right that those who sit here to defend the laws should pay attention to long speeches and accusations, but only to those which you will all easily follow, and by the help of which you will be thought by all the citizens to have decided this information in a manner worthy of the laws. You should ask in plain terms, What do you mean, Theocrines, and all you who follow the same pursuits as he does? Do you demand that we who have sworn that we will give our verdict according to the laws shall vote contrary to the laws because of your speeches?

Do you demand this, when Micon, against whom Theocrines filed his denunciation but did not proceed with it, has given evidence before us, and has made himself responsible to these jurors?—when the secretary acknowledges that he received the denunciation from the defendant, and has been made responsible by the deposition which was read a little while ago?—when, furthermore, the overseers of the port have, unwillingly, to be sure, yet nevertheless, given the same testimony as the others?-and when, in addition to all this, testimony is given, as you heard a little while ago, by those who saw the denunciation exposed to public view, and who went before the magistrates? No; men of the jury, that would not be right.

I am sure that the character of the defendant and his manner of life will not lead you to believe that the depositions which have been read are false. On the contrary, his character far more convincingly than the words which have been spoken proves Theocrines to be such as I portray him. For what is there that a scoundrel and a pettifogger would do that he has not done? Was it not because of his evil character that his brother, who held the office of judge[*](That is, one of the Themosthetae; see note a on Dem. 33.1) and who was guided by the defendant’s advice, was brought into such bad repute with you, that, when you voted on the question of retaining the magistrates,[*](This was done at the first assembly in each prytany, or ten times a year. (For the prytany see note a on Dem. 47.42)) he was not only himself rejected, but caused the rejection of the entire board? And had it not been that through the prayers and entreaties of his fellow-judges and through their promise that Theocrines should never again come near the board you were persuaded to give them back their crowns,[*](The ten archons wore crowns as a badge of their inviolability.) would they not have incurred the deepest possible disgrace?

To prove these facts there is no need of my calling witnesses before you, for you all know that in the archonship of Lyciscus[*](That is, in 343 B.C.) the Thesmothetae were deposed from office by vote of the popular assembly because of Theocrines. Remembering this, you ought to assume that he is no different now from what he was then.

Not long after he was removed from office, when his brother died by a violent death, Theocrines showed himself so utterly heartless toward him that, when he had made inquiry concerning those who had done the deed, and had learned who they were, he accepted a bribe, and let the matter drop.[*](That is, he accepted the blood-price instead of bringing the murderers to justice.)

His brother at the time of his death held the office of sacrificer, and this office Theocrines continued to fill in defiance of the laws, without having been designated by lot to assume the office or to fill the vacancy. He went around bewailing his brother’s fate and declaring that he was going to summon Demochares before the Areopagus, until he made terms with those charged with the crime. An honorable man is he indeed, one whom you can trust, a man quite above the appeal of money! Why, even he would not claim that. Men say that whoever means to administer public affairs with justice and moderation should not have so many wants, but should be superior to all those things which lead people to spend on themselves all that they receive.

Such, then, was his conduct where his brother was concerned; but it is worth your while to hear how he has managed affairs since he came forward in public life (for he declares that he loves you next after his own relatives). I will begin with his conduct toward us. In his accusation against my father, men of the jury, when he was prosecuting the indictment for illegality against him, he stated that a plot had been formed against the boy,[*](It appears that the father of the present speaker had proposed a decree granting to Charidemus, son of the general Ischomachus, maintenance in the Prytaneum in recognition of the services rendered to the state by his father. Charidemus had, however, been adopted by Aeschylus, and, if he accepted the honor, would have had to return to his father’s family, and in that case he would forfeit all claim to the estate of his adoptive father, which was a large one; though the speaker maintains that there was no likelihood of this result. Theocrines asserted that, in moving the decree, Epichares was acting in collusion with Polyeuctus, who had married the boy’s mother, and who wanted to get control of the property for himself. (This is most easily explained on the assumption that the mother was herself a daughter of Aeschylus, and therefore the ἐπίκληρος, or heiress. In that case her husband, as her κύριος, would control the property.) The jury found against the father of Epichares, and he was fined ten talents.) regarding whom the decree was drawn—the decree, that is, in which my father moved that maintenance in the Prytaneum[*](This building was situated in or near the agora on the north-west slope of the Acropolis; see Vanderpool in Hesperia 4. (1935), p. 471, note 4. In it were maintained as guests of the state Olympic victors and any who had rendered extraordinary benefactions to the state.) should be granted to Charidemus, son of Ischomachus.

For Theocrines asserted that, if the boy should return to his father’s house, he would be found to have lost all the estate which Aeschylus, his adoptive father, had given him. This assertion was false, for no such thing, men of the jury, has ever happened to any adopted person. He made the further assertion that Polyeuctus, the husband of the boy’s mother, had been responsible for the whole scheme, since he wished to retain possession of the boy’s property. The jurymen were incensed at his assertions and held that, while the decree itself and the grant were both legal, the boy would in fact be robbed of his estate; and they fined my father ten talents as being in the scheme with Polyeuctus, and gave credence to Theocrines as having come to the boy’s defence.

Such, or substantially such, were the proceedings in court. But when this worthy fellow saw that the people were filled with wrath, and that he himself had been believed, as one who was not wholly depraved, he summoned Polyeuctus before the archon and lodged an indictment against him for maltreatment of an orphan, and put the case in the hands of the assessor Mnesarchides.[*](Each of the three chief archons (the Eponymus, the King, and the Polemarch) had two assessors to whom he could delegate the conduct of business for him. This case would belong to the Eponymus.) When, however, he had received two hundred drachmae from Polyeuctus and had sold for a trifling sum those awful charges for which he had fixed the damages in my father’s case at ten talents, he dropped the matter, withdrew the indictment, and left the orphan in the lurch.

(To the clerk.) Call, please, the witnesses who support these statements.

The Witnesses

If now my father had been well-to-do, men of the jury, and able to provide a thousand drachmae, he would have got off entirely free from the indictment for illegality; for that was the sum the defendant demanded of him.

(To the clerk.) Call, please, Philippides of Paeania[*](Paeania, a deme of the tribe Pandionis.) to whom this fellow Theocrines made this statement, and the others who know that he made it.

The Witnesses

That Theocrines, men of the jury, if he had been offered the thousand drachmae, would have withdrawn the indictment against my father, I think that you are all convinced, even if no witness had so testified. To prove, however, that he has summoned many other people and preferred indictments against them, and then has compromised the matter, and that he is in the habit of desisting from prosecution on receipt of small bribes, I shall call before you the very persons who paid him, in order that you may not believe him when he declares that it is he who keeps watch over those who propose illegal measures, and that when indictments for illegality are done away with it is the ruin of your democracy. (For it is in this way that all those who sell everything for money are in the habit of talking.)

(To the clerk.) Call, please, Aristomachus, son of Critodemus, of Alopecê,[*](Alopecê, a deme of the tribe Antiochis.) for it is he who paid—or rather in whose house were paid—the mina and a half to this man who cannot be bribed, in the matter of the decree which Antimedon proposed on behalf of the people of Tenedos.[*](Tenedos, an island in the Aegean, off the west coast of Phrygia.)

The Deposition

Read also in sequence the other depositions of the same sort, and that of Hypereides[*](A prominent Athenian orator and statesman.) and Demosthenes. For this goes beyond all else—that the fellow should be most glad, by selling indictments to get money from men, from whom no one else would think of demanding it.[*](That is, these men were too influential to fear blackmail from a man like Theocrines.)

The Depositions

Well, he will presently say that the criminal information has been lodged against him for this purpose, that he may not proceed with the indictment which he preferred against Demosthenes or with that against Thucydides; for he is a clever fellow at lying and at saying what lacks all foundation. I have looked into this matter also, men of the jury, and will show you that the state suffers not the slightest harm, whether the decree of Thucydides is ratified, or whether it is annulled. And yet it is not right to bring up a defence of this sort before men who have sworn to give a verdict according to the laws. You will, however, presently learn from the indictment itself, that it is merely a pretext to offset the criminal information.

(To the clerk.) Read these indictments.[*](There were two indictments, one against Demosthenes and one against Thucydides.)

The Indictments

Whether the decrees stand as they are, men of the jury, or are annulled (for it makes no difference to me), what does the state either gain or lose? Nothing, in my opinion. They say that the men of Aenos[*](Aenos, a town on the south coast of Thrace.) pay no heed to our state, and that this has come about because of this fellow Theocrines. For being harassed by the false and malicious charges of this man at the time when some of them were turning to Philip and others to Athens, and learning that the decree which Charinus had previously indicted had again been indicted as illegal,—the decree, that is, which Thucydides proposed and which had to do with their contribution[*](It appears that the Athenian general Chares had fixed the tribute to be paid by the Athenians at a moderate sum, and that Thucydides had proposed a decree approving this act. This decree was indicted as illegal, first by Charinus and then by Theocrines. The result was that the Aenians revolted and went over to the side of Philip.); and learning furthermore that no conclusion was being reached in the matter,

but that, while the people were ready to grant that the Aenians should pay the contribution which they had agreed upon with the general Chares, this abominable fellow had taken upon himself to carry on the same practices as the traitor Charinus—learning all this, I say, they took the course which necessity forced upon them, and chose the least of the evils before them. Yet what must we assume their sufferings at the hands of those who were preferring indictments here to have been, when it seemed to the Aenians preferable to revolt from us, to receive a garrison, and to be subject to barbarians? But you alone, I think, are able to endure the wickedness of these men, you alone, and no one besides among all the Greeks!

That you ought not, then, whether on account of the indictments which have been read, or for any other reason, to acquit Theocrines in defiance of all the laws concerning criminal informations, is reasonably clear from what has been said. I think, however, men of the jury, that you are not aware of the excuses of these men, of their accusations, and their pretended enmities.

For you have not infrequently seen them in the court-rooms and on the platform, declaring that they are personal foes to one another, but in private following the same pursuits and sharing the profits; at one time reviling and abusing one another in foulest terms, and a little later associating in family festivals with these same people, and taking part in the same sacrifices. And not one of these things is perhaps to be wondered at. For the men are by nature base, and they see that you accept such excuses; so what is to prevent their using them and trying to deceive you?