[5] We both fell in love with Theodotos, a Plataian youth, Council. And I tried to win his affection by treating him well, while Simon thought that with violent and lawless behaviour he would force the boy to do whatever he wanted. It would take too long to tell all the mistreatment Theodotos has received from him. But what I think you should hear is his offences against me personally.

[6] Discovering that the boy was with me, he came to my house at night, drunk, broke down the doors and went into the women’s quarters, when my sister and my nieces were there; and they have lived such a decent life that they are embarrassed to be seen even by their relatives. [7] Such was his violence that he refused to go until the passers-by and the people who came with him, shocked at his conduct in entering the presence of orphaned young girls, made him leave by force. And so far from regretting his outrageous conduct, he found out where we were dining and did the strangest thing, something quite incredible, unless one happened to know the man’s madness. [8] He called me from indoors, and when I came out he immediately tried to strike me; when I resisted, he stood at a distance and pelted me with stones. He actually missed me, but hit Aristokritos, who had come with him to see me, with a stone and split his forehead open.

When I thought that enough time had elapsed for Simon to forget the youth and regret his former misconduct, I came back, [11] I went off to Peiraieus. But Simon noticed at once that Theodotos was back and was at the house of Lysimachos, who lived near the house which Simon had leased, and he summoned some of his friends. They passed their time dining and drinking; they had set watchers on the roof so that when the boy emerged they could drag him in. [12] At this juncture I came back from Peiraieus, and while passing I called in at Lysimachos’ house. After a short interval we came out. Drunk by now, our opponents jumped on us. Some of Simon’s companions refused to join in his misbehaviour; but Simon here, Theophilos, Protarchos and Autokles began dragging the boy off. He however threw off his robe and took to flight. [13] As for me, thinking Theodotos would escape and that my opponents would turn back in shame as soon as they encountered people – with these thoughts I went off in another direction; I was so keen to avoid them, and I thought that all I had experienced at their hands a great misfortune. [14] And at this point, where Simon says the fight took place, none of them or us had his head cut open or suffered any other injury, as I shall prove by presenting those who were there as witnesses.

Witnesses

[19] As for all the others who joined Simon in his drunken violence, as soon as they saw me after this, they asked me to forgive them, as the ones who behaved intolerably and not the victims. And from that day to this, though four years have elapsed nobody has ever brought any complaint against me. [20] But as for this man Simon, the cause of all the trouble, for most of the time he kept his peace through fear for himself; but when he saw me lose some private suits arising from a challenge to exchange property, he began to despise me and with the impudence you see embroiled me in a trial of such a serious nature. To prove the truth of my story, I shall present you with those who were there as witnesses.

Witnesses

[21] You have heard what happened both from me and from the witnesses. I could wish, Council, that Simon’s attitude was the same as mine, so that you could hear the truth from both of us and decide with ease where justice lies. But since he has no respect for the oaths he swore, I shall try to correct the lies he has told you.

[22] He had the audacity to state that he made an agreement with Theodotos and gave him three hundred drachmas, and that I schemed to detach the boy from him. But what he should have done, if this was the truth, was to summon the largest number of witnesses he could and deal with the matter legally. [23] But this man self-evidently never did anything of the sort, but assaulted and struck both of us, came on a drunken visit, broke down the doors and went by night into the quarters of free women. You should consider this conduct the firmest indication that he is lying.

[27] And he claims that he was beaten and left in a terrible condition by me at his own door. Yet it is certain that he pursued the boy more than four stades from his house without any injury, and he denies this though more than two hundred people saw it.

[28] He says that we came to his house with shards of pottery and I threatened to kill him; and this indicates intent. In my opinion, Council, it is easy to tell that he is lying, not only for you who regularly consider such matters but for the rest of the world as well. [29] Who could find it credible that with full intent and deliberation I came to Simon’s house in the daytime, with the lad, when there was such a large number of people gathered there, unless I was so deranged as to wish to fight alone against large numbers? Besides which, I knew that he would be delighted to see me at his door, since it was he who used to come to my house and force his way in, and who had the impudence to search for me without any consideration for my sister and my nieces, and finding out where I happened to be at dinner called me out and hit me. [30] And at that point, it seems, I kept my peace to avoid notoriety, regarding his criminality as my misfortune, but when time had passed, I then (according to him) became eager for notoriety!

[31] If the boy had been at his house, it would make some sense for him to lie to the effect that I was compelled by desire to behave somewhat more foolishly than usual. As it stands, the boy would not even talk to him, but hated him more than anyone in the world, while it was with me that he was actually staying. [32] So which of you finds it credible that, when I had earlier made a voyage away from the city taking the boy with me, to avoid fighting with Simon, once I arrived back I took him to Simon’s house, where I was likely to have the most trouble? [33] And when scheming against him did I come so ill-prepared that I had summoned neither friends nor servants nor any other person, except for this child, who could not have helped me, but would be able to disclose under torture any offence I committed? [34] Was I so stupid that when scheming against Simon, instead of watching for an opportunity to catch him alone, at night or in daylight, I went to the very place where I was sure to be seen by the largest number of people and beaten up, as though my intent was against myself, to ensure that I received the maximum humiliation from my enemies?

[38] Whatever would have happened to me, if the reverse of this had happened, if accompanied by many of my friends I had met Simon, fought with him and beaten him, then pursued him and having caught him I tried to drag him off by force, if as it is when he has behaved like this I find myself facing a trial of such seriousness, in which I stand to lose my fatherland and all my possessions?

[39] The most important and clearest indication is this. The man who has been wronged and schemed against by me, as he claims, could not bring himself to bring a charge before you for four years. Other people, when they are in love and are robbed of the object of desire and are beaten up, grow angry and attempt to take revenge at once, while this man does it ages afterwards.

[40] I think, Council, that I have given adequate proof that I am not to blame for what happened. But my attitude to quarrels over matters like this is such that, though I have suffered a great many other outrages from Simon and had my head split open by him, I could not bring myself to take legal action against him. I thought it preposterous that just because we had been in competition with each other for a lover one should try to have people exiled from their homeland.

[44] One thing especially amazes me about his character. I don’t think that the same nature is capable of both love and malicious litigation; the former belongs to simpler souls, the latter to the most unscrupulous. I wish it was possible for me to give proof of this man’s criminality in your court from the rest of his conduct, so that you would realize that it would be far more just for him to be on trial for his life than to place others in danger of losing their homeland. [45] Most of it I shall omit. But I shall mention a fact, which you should hear and which will be an indication of his audacity and impudence. In Corinth, after arriving too late for the battle against the enemy and the expedition to Koroneia, he fought with Laches the taxiarch and struck him; and though the whole citizen body took part in the expedition, he was deemed thoroughly undisciplined and wicked and alone of the Athenians he was formally dismissed by the generals.

[46] There are many other tales I could tell about him, but since it is not allowable in your court to speak outside the main issue, please bear this in mind. It was they who entered our home by force; they who pursued; they who tried to drag us by force off the street. [47] Remember this and vote for what is just. Do not allow me to be exiled unjustly from my fatherland, for which I have faced many dangers and performed many public services; I have never been responsible for any harm to it, nor has any of my ancestors, but for much benefit. [48] So in justice I should be pitied by you and other men, not only if any of the things Simon wants were to happen to me but also because I have been forced as a result of events like this to face a trial of this nature.

[3] Two years ago I went out to Panakton, when we were assigned to garrison duty. The sons of Konon here had a tent near us, though I wish they hadn’t. For that was the origin of the hostility and clashes between us. I shall tell you how it came about.

[6] Now that the matter had gone so far, when we returned here, as one would expect, there was anger and hostility between us. But good heavens, I did not think it necessary to sue them or to make an issue of any of the events; no, I simply decided for the future to be careful and avoid them and to have no dealings with people of that sort.

First of all, I wish to provide the depositions relating to the statements I have made, and then to show you the treatment I have received from Konon himself; then you will realize that the very man who should have criticized the original offences has himself taken the lead in committing far more serious crimes.

Depositions

[7] These are the events I chose to ignore. Not long afterwards I was walking in the agora one evening, as was my habit, together with Phanostratos of Kephisia, one of my contemporaries, when this man’s son Ktesias came up, drunk, in the vicinity of the Leokorion, near Pythodoros’ premises. On catching sight of us he shouted out, and after talking to himself as a drunk would, so that one could not catch what he was saying, he went off up to Melite. It turns out they were drinking there (as we learned later) at Pamphilos the fuller’s place; Konon here, a man named Diotimos, Archebiades, Spintharos son of Euboulos, Theogenes son of Andromenes, and many others. All these Ktesias roused up and set off to the agora.

To prove the truth of these statements, I shall provide you with witnesses to the facts.

Witnesses

[10] As it happened, judges, Euxitheos of Cholleidai here, a relative of mine, and with him Meidias, who were coming back from dinner, came upon me when I was already near my home; they accompanied me as I was carried to the bath and were there when the doctor was brought. I was in such a weak condition that, to avoid my being carried the long distance home from the bath, those present decided to take me to Meidias’ house for that night, and they did so. So then, take the depositions of these people also, so you will know that there are many people who know the sort of outrage I was subjected to by these men.

Depositions

Now take also the doctor’s deposition.

Deposition

[11] At that point then my immediate condition from the blows I received and the outrage I suffered was such as you hear and all the people who saw me right then have testified to you. But subsequently the doctor said that he was not overly concerned for the swellings on my face and the cuts, but I was subject to persistent bouts of fever and severe and violent pains, especially of the sides and the pit of the stomach, and I was incapable of eating. [12] And according to the doctor, but for the fact that a very substantial spontaneous evacuation of blood occurred at a time when I was in great pain and already despaired of, I might even have died from suppuration. As it was, it was this that saved me, the evacuation of blood. To prove that in this too I am telling the truth, and that I was subjected to illness such as to reduce me to a desperate condition, as a result of the blows I received from these men, read the doctor’s deposition and that of the people who visited me.

Depositions

[20] So this is what is in the laws. And if Konon says: ‘We’re a band of Ithyphallics, and in our love affairs we beat and strangle whoever we choose’, will you laugh and let him off? I don’t think so. None of you would have been seized with laughter, if he had chanced to be there when I was being attacked and stripped and outraged, when after going out in full health I was carried home, and my mother rushed out, and there was so much yelling and shouting at our house from the women, like that for a dead man, that some of the neighbours sent to our house to ask what had happened. [21] As a general rule, judges, in justice there should be no excuse or indemnity for anyone in your court such as to allow a man to commit outrage. But if it is open to anyone, it is proper that recourse to arguments of this sort should be reserved for people who commit any such act through youth, and in their case not to prevent them from being punished but so they face a lighter punishment than they should. [22] But when a man over fifty years old, and in the company of younger men, his sons at that, not only failed to dissuade or prevent them but has himself been ringleader and instigator and the vilest of all, what punishment could he suffer which would be adequate for his actions? In my opinion, not even death. Even if he had carried out none of the acts but had stood by while his son Ktesias committed the acts, which Konon clearly has done, you would be right to hate him. [23] For if he has brought up his sons in such a way that they feel neither fear nor shame to commit offences in his presence, offences at that which in some cases carry the death penalty, what punishment in your view could not reasonably be inflicted on him? For myself, I think that this is evidence that he did not respect his own father either; for if Konon personally had honoured and feared his own father, he would have demanded that his sons too honour and fear him.

[24] Please take these laws too, the law dealing with outrage and the one about clothes-stealers. For you will see that they are liable under both. Read it.

Laws

[26] Now I want to tell you what they did when the arbitration took place. This too will show you their recklessness. They prolonged the time beyond midnight by refusing either to read out the depositions or to hand over copies and just taking our supporters one by one to the stone and making them take an oath, and drafting utterly irrelevant depositions, to the effect that this was his son by a mistress and that he had been treated in this way or that, behaviour which roused the disapproval and disgust of every person present, including finally their own.

[27] Anyway, when they tired and had had enough of this conduct, they issued a challenge aimed at causing delay and preventing the sealing of the jars, to the effect that they were willing to hand over for questioning about the assault some slaves whose names they wrote down. And now I think that much of their speech will be on this subject. But in my opinion what you should bear in mind is that, if the purpose of their challenge was for the torture to take place and they had confidence in the justice of this point, they would not have issued the challenge when the decision was on the point of being made, at night, when they had no excuse left; [28] but at the start before the suit was lodged, when I was in bed ill, not knowing whether I would survive, and was telling all my visitors the identity of the man who struck me first and carried out most of the outrage inflicted on me, that was the time when he would have come at once to my house with many witnesses, that was the time when he would have offered to hand over the servants and invited members of the Areiopagos along. For if I had died, they were the ones who would have tried the case. [29] If he was ignorant of all this, and if (as he claims now) though he had a valid argument to offer in this he made no preparations when facing a danger of this magnitude, at least when I was back on my feet and had summoned him, he would have shown himself willing to hand over the slaves at the first meeting before the arbitrator. He has done none of this. To prove that I am telling the truth and that the challenge was issued to cause delay, read out this deposition. This will make it clear.

[30] Now on the subject of the challenge you should remember this; the time when he made the challenge, his evasive purpose in doing this, and the initial periods during which he has shown no desire to have this argument to support him, nor issued a challenge nor made any demand. So when all the facts were proved before the arbitrator as is happening now, and it was clearly demonstrated that he was guilty of the charges, [31] he entered a lying testimony and named as witnesses people whom I think you too will not fail to recognize, if you hear them: ‘Diotimos son of Diotimos of Ikaria, Archebiades son of Demoteles of Halai, Chairetios son of Chairimenes of Pithe, testify that they were coming away from dinner with Konon and came upon Ariston and Konon’s son fighting in the agora, and Konon did not strike Ariston.’ [32] As if you would immediately trust them and would not work out the truth, that to start with neither Lysistratos nor Paseas nor Nikeratos nor Diodoros, who have explicitly attested that they saw me being beaten by Konon and stripped of my robe and subjected to all the other outrageous treatment I received, would have been willing to give false testimony, as people unknown to me who turned up at the incident by chance, if they did not see me in this condition. Again, I myself would never, if I had not suffered this treatment at Konon’s hands, have let off the men who on the admission of my opponents themselves beat me and elected to take action first against the one who never even touched me. [33] Why should I? No, the man who was the first to strike me and from whom I suffered the greatest outrage is the man I am suing, the one I hate and prosecute.

All of my claims are as you see true and patently so. But in his case, if he had not offered these witnesses he would have had no argument at all but would have found himself convicted in silence. But as drinking companions of his and partners in many acts of this sort they have naturally given false testimony. If it’s to be this way, if people once abandon all shame and dare to give blatantly false testimony, and the truth brings no benefit, it will be intolerable.

Depositions

[37] So then, when they break into houses and beat up people they meet, do you think they would scruple to give false testimony on a scrap of paper, men who have participated in viciousness, wickedness, unscrupulousness and outrage of this magnitude and kind? For in my opinion at least all these qualities are found in the acts they commit. Yet there are other acts still more terrible committed by these men, but we should find it impossible to find all the victims.

Challenge

[41] This is the oath I offered to swear, and I swear now by all the gods and goddesses, for your sake, judges, and that of the bystanders, that it is because I suffered at Konon’s hands the acts for which I am now suing, and was beaten and had my lip split to the extent that it had to be stitched and I was outrageously assaulted that I am bringing this action. And if my oath is honest, may much good befall me and may I never again suffer anything of the sort, while if my oath is false, may I myself perish utterly, and anything that is mine now or in the future. But my oath is not false, even if Konon says so till he bursts.

[42] So I urge you, judges, now that I have proved my case in full justice, and have given you a pledge in addition, that just as each of you would personally hate the perpetrator if he had suffered this, he should feel the same anger against Konon here on my behalf, and not regard as a private matter any such thing which might perhaps befall anyone. Whoever it befalls, you should give aid and grant justice, and hate people who in the face of their crimes are bold and impetuous and when put on trial are shameless and wicked and care nothing for custom or anything else in their efforts to escape punishment.

[43] But Konon will beg and weep. Now consider: who deserves more pity, the man who suffers what I have suffered at his hands, if I leave the court as a victim of further outrage, deprived of justice, or Konon, if he is punished? Is it more advantageous for each of you that people should be free to commit assault and outrage or not? I think not. Now if you acquit, there will be more of these people, but if you convict, there will be less.

[44] There is much I could say, judges, to show we have been useful citizens, both ourselves and our father during his life, serving as trierarchs and soldiers and doing our duty, and that neither Konon nor any of his family have been of use. But there is not sufficient time, and the case is not about these matters. Indeed, if in reality we were on our own admission even more useless and criminal than these people, we do not, I think, deserve to be beaten or subjected to outrage.

I don’t know that I need say more. I think you understand all that has been said.