Against Theocrines

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That Theocrines, men of the jury, if he had been offered the thousand drachmae, would have withdrawn the indictment against my father, I think that you are all convinced, even if no witness had so testified.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?