you come to any adverse decision? To the goods mortgaged to creditors? They belong to the mortgagees. To the surplus remaining after repayment? That will go to the defendant, if by your sentence I am decreed to pay a sixth part of the damages. Gentlemen, I entreat you, do not entail upon us so heavy a calamity; do not allow my mother, myself, and my sister, to be reduced to unmerited misfortune. My father left us not with such prospects as these. His daughter he had betrothed to Demophon with a portion of two talents, his widow with a fortune of eighty minas was to have married this most cruel of men, the defendant, and me he intended to fill his own place as a contributor to the public service. Succour us then, succour us, for the sake of justice, for your own, for ours, and our deceased father's sake. Save us, have mercy on us, since these our relations have shewn no mercy. To you we are come for protection. I pray and beseech you, by your wives and children, by all the blessings you possess; as you hope to enjoy them, do not abandon me, do not cause my mother to be deprived of all her remaining hopes in life, or to suffer distress unbecoming her condition. Now, poor woman, she expects that I shall return home to her, restored by your verdict to my rights, and that my sister will not remain portionless; but should you decide against me, (which heaven forbid,) what think you will be her feelings, when she beholds me not only deprived of

my inheritance, but also degraded from my rank, and my sister wholly destitute, without a chance of ever obtaining a suitable establishment? It is not meet, gentlemen of the jury, that I should be refused redress, or my opponent retain the wealth he has plundered. With regard to myself, though you have no actual experience of my disposition towards you, it is fair to presume that I shall not be worse than my father. Of the defendant you have some experience; and you well know that, though he has inherited a large fortune, he has not only shewn no liberality to the public, but even grasps at the property of his neighbour. Bear in mind this, with the other facts of the case, and give your votes according to justice. You have the clearest evidence to guide you, the evidence of witnesses, circumstances, probabilities, these men's own acknowledgement that they took possession of my estate. They say they have spent it; a falsehood; for they have it still. But let this warn you to be careful of my interests; seeing that, if I recover my rights by your assistance, I shall naturally be grateful to you for restoring them, and glad to serve costly offices; whereas the defendant, if you let him keep what belongs to me, will do nothing of the kind; for do not suppose, that he will choose to contribute in respect of property, which he denies having received; no; he will rather conceal it, to justify the verdict in his favour.

APHOBUS AGAINST PHANUS.

CASE.

PREVIOUS to the last trial Aphobus demanded a certain person (named Milyas) to be given up to him, to be examined by torture. Demosthenes refused to give him up, on the ground that he was a freeman; but knowing the refusal would be brought as an argument against him on the trial, he called witnesses, among others Phanus the defendant, to prove that Aphobus before the arbitrator confessed Milyas to be free. For giving this testimony1 Aphobus brings the present action against Phanus, whom Demosthenes defends.

1 See note 16.

SPEECH OF DEMOSTHENES FOR THE DEFENCE.

GENTLEMEN of the jury: If I did not reflect, that a cause has already been tried between myself and Aphobus, in which I convicted him with ease of greater falsehoods than any which he has now uttered; (so palpable were the wrongs he had done me;) I should tremble at my own inability to expose the arts by which he misleads you. Now, however, (with the favour of the Gods be it spoken,)

if

you will only give me a fair and impartial hearing, I feel confident that you will form the same opinion of this man's impudence as the jury on the previous occasion. If indeed the case had required an artful speech, I should have distrusted my own youth and inexperience; but I am sure that all I shall have to do, will be to lay before you a simple statement of the plaintiff's conduct towards us. From this you will easily discover which of us is the guilty party.

I know that he has commenced these proceedings, not with any expectation that he shall convict a witness of giving false testimony against him, but in the belief that the large amount of damages, which he was condemned to pay, will excite a prejudice against me, and a feeling of compassion

for himself. On this account he now labours to clear himself of the charges made against him at the former trial, on the merits of which he had not a word to say in his defence at the time. I beg to observe, gentlemen, that if I had proceeded to execute the judgment, without shewing him any indulgence, I should have done no wrong in levying the damages which you had awarded, though it might perhaps have been urged, that I had acted with excessive rigour in depriving a relation of all his property. The truth, however, is the reverse. The plaintiff has conspired with his fellow-guardians to deprive me of the whole of my inheritance, and even now, after having been clearly convicted by a jury of his country, he does not choose to do any thing which is fair or reasonable. He has dispersed the whole of his effects, giving the house to Aphobus, and the farm to Onetor, with whom I have been compelled to go to law; he took the furniture out of the house himself, carried away the slaves, broke the wine vat, tore off the doors, and all but set fire to the house; then he departed for Megara, where he has settled and paid the alien's tax. Surely you have more reason to execrate the plaintiff for such behaviour, than to charge me with any undue severity.

Of the rapacity and wickedness of this man I shall presently give you a full account, though indeed you have heard a pretty good summary of it already. But I shall now proceed at once to