On the Property of Aristophanes: Against the Treasury

Moreover we, bereft of our kinsfolk, bereft of the dowry,[*](Of the speaker’s sister; cf. Lys. 19.32 below.) and compelled to rear three small children, are attacked besides by base informers, and are in danger of losing what our ancestors bequeathed to us after they had acquired it by honest means. Yet, gentlemen, my father in all his life spent more on the State than on himself and his family,—twice the amount that we have now, as he often reckoned in my presence.

So you must not rashly convict of guilt the man who spent little on himself, but a great deal on you each year; you ought rather to condemn all those persons who have made a habit of squandering both their patrimony and whatever they can get from elsewhere on the most disgraceful pleasures.

It is difficult indeed, gentlemen, to defend oneself against an impression which some people have received of the property of Nicophemus, and in face of a scarcity of money that is now felt in the city, and when our contention is against the Treasury. Nevertheless, even in these circumstances, you will easily perceive that the accusations are not true; and I request you with all the insistence in my power to give us a kindly hearing to the end, and to deliver the verdict that you may esteem best for you and most agreeable to your oaths.

Now I will inform you, in the first place, of the way in which they[*](The family of Aristophanes.) became connected with us. Conon, who was in command of operations around the Peloponnese,[*](393 B.C., when he succeeded in reestablishing some strongholds of the Athenians on the coasts of Laconia.) and who had formed a friendship long before with my father when he equipped a warship, requested him to bestow my sister on her suitor, the son of Nicophemus.