An Unknown Pleader Against Spudias in the Matter of a Marriage Proposal (1-5)

This man Spudias and I, men of the jury, are married to two sisters, daughters of Polyeuctus. Polyeuctus having died without male issue, I am forced to go to law with the defendant in regard to the property which has been left. And if, men of the jury, I had not shown all zeal and eagerness in my desire to find a settlement and to submit the matters at issue to our friends, I should have blamed myself for not choosing to suffer a trifling loss rather than engage in a troublesome lawsuit.

But, as it is, the more gentleness and consideration I used in talking with the defendant, the more contempt he showed toward me. And now it appears that in my contest with him we are in no sense on equal terms, but he can take the matter lightly, since he has been accustomed to come often before you, whereas I fear this very thing, that because of my lack of experience I may prove unable to explain my case to you. None the less, men of the jury, I beg you to give heed.

Polyeuctus was a man of Teithras,[*] not unknown, it may well be, to some of you. This Polyeuctus, since he had no male children, adopted Leocrates, the brother of his own wife; but since he had two daughters by the sister of Leocrates, he gave the elder to me in marriage with a portion of forty minae, and the younger to Leocrates.[*]

So matters stood, when a quarrel came about between Polyeuctus and Leocrates, as to the nature of which I know of nothing which it is incumbent upon me to relate, and Polyeuctus took away his daughter[*] and gave her in marriage to this man Spudias. After this Leocrates, being greatly incensed, brought suit against Polyeuctus and Spudias here, and they were forced to render an accounting in regard to all the matters at issue, and in the end a settlement was reached on the terms that Leocrates, on receiving back all that he had brought into the estate, should be reconciled with Polyeuctus, and that final releases should be given from all demands made by each upon the other.

Now, why is it, men of the jury, that I have told you this? Because I did not receive the whole of my wife’s portion, but a thousand drachmae were left unpaid with the understanding that I should receive them on the death of Polyeuctus; and so long as Leocrates was the heir of Polyeuctus, it was he who was responsible to me for the debt; but when Leocrates had left the family, and Polyeuctus was seriously ill, then, men of the jury, to secure the ten minae, I took a mortgage on this house, the rents accruing from which Spudias seeks to prevent me from collecting.