Theomnestus and Apollodorus Against Neaera

so, when peace was made in the archonship of Phrasicleides,[*](That is, in 371 B.C.) and the battle was fought at Leuctra[*](Leuctra was a town in Boeotia. In this battle the Thebans under Epameinondas broke the power of Sparta. The date was 371 B.C.) between the Thebans and the Lacedaemonians, this man Stephanus, having at the time come to Megara and having put up at Neaera’s house, as at the house of a courtesan, and having had intercourse with her, she told him all that had taken place and her brutal treatment by Phrynion. She gave him besides all that she had brought away from Phrynion’s house, and as she was eager to live at Athens, but was afraid of Phrynion because she had wronged him and he was bitter against her, and she knew he was a man of violent and reckless temper, she took Stephanus here for her patron.[*](Every resident alien in Athens was required to have some citizen as his προστάτης, or patron.)

He on his part encouraged her there in Megara with confident words, boastfully asserting that if Phrynion should lay hands on her he would have cause to rue it, whereas he himself would keep her as his wife and would introduce the sons whom she then had to his clansmen as being his own, and would make them citizens; and he promised that no one in the world should harm her. So he brought her with him from Megara to Athens, and with her her three children, Proxenus and Ariston and a daughter whom they now call Phano.

He established her and her children in the cottage which he had near the Whispering Hermes[*](We do not know where this statue stood.) between the house of Dorotheus the Eleusinian and that of Cleinomachus—the cottage which Spintharus has now bought from him for seven minae; so the property which Stephanus owned was just this and nothing besides. There were two reasons why he brought her here: first, because he would have a beautiful mistress without cost, and secondly, because her earnings would procure supplies and maintain the house; for he had no other income save what he might get by pettifoggery.

Phrynion, however, learned that the woman was in Athens, and was living with Stephanus, and taking some young men with him he came to the house of Stephanus and attempted to carry her off. When Stephanus took her away from him, as the law allowed, declaring her to be a free woman, Phrynion required her to post bonds with the polemarch.[*](That is, until her status, as free woman or slave, should be determined.)

To prove that this statement is true, I will bring before you as a witness to these facts the man himself who was polemarch at the time.

(To the clerk.) Please call Aeetes of Ceiriadae.[*](Ceiriadae, a deme of the tribe Hippothontis.)

The Deposition

Aeetes of Ceiriadae deposes that while he was polemarch, Neaera, the present defendant, was required by Phrynion, the brother of Demochares, to post bonds, and that the sureties of Neaera were Stephanus of Eroeadae,[*](Eroeadae, a deme of the tribe Hippothontis.) Glaucetes of Cephisia,[*](Cephisia, a deme of the tribe Erectheïs.) and Aristocrates of Phalerum.[*](Phalerum, a deme of the tribe Aeantis.)

Now that Stephanus had become surety for her, and seeing that she was living at his house, she continued to carry on the same trade no less than before, but she charged higher fees from those who sought her favors as being now a respectable woman living with her husband. Stephanus, on his part, joined with her in extorting blackmail. If he found as a lover of Neaera any young alien rich and without experience, he would lock him up as caught in adultery with her, and would extort a large sum of money from him.

And this course was natural enough; for neither Stephanus nor Neaera had any property to supply funds for their daily expenditures, and the expenses of their establishment were large; for they had to support both him and her and three children whom she had brought with her, and two female servants and a male house-servant; and besides Neaera had become accustomed to live comfortably, since heretofore others had provided the cost of her maintenance.