On the Olive Stump

And this trial has been made especially perplexing for me, because at first I was indicted for clearing away an olive tree from my land, and they went and made an inquiry of the men who had brought the produce of the State olives; but having failed by this method to find that I have done anything wrong, they now say it is an olive-stump that I cleared away, judging that for me this is a most difficult accusation to refute, while to them it allows more freedom to make any statement that they please.

So I am obliged, on a charge which this man has carefully planned against me before coming here, and which I have only heard at the same moment as you who are to decide on the case, to defend myself against the loss of my native land and my possessions. Nevertheless I will try to explain the affair to you from the beginning.

This plot of ground belonged to Peisander; but when his property was confiscated, Apollodorus of Megara had it as a gift from the people[*](Peisander was a leader in the revolution of the Four Hundred (411 B.C.) and his property was fortified on the counter-revolution of the Five Thousand in the same year; Apollodorus was rewarded for taking part in the assassination of Phrynichus, another of the Four Hundred.) and cultivated it for some time, until, shortly before the Thirty,[*](404 B.C.) Anticles bought it from him and let it out. I bought it from Anticles when peace had been made.[*](After the fall of the Thirty and on the intervention of Sparta, 403 B.C.)