An Unknown Pleader Against Spudias in the Matter of a Marriage Proposal (6-10)

In the first place, then, I shall bring before you as witnesses those who were present when Polyeuctus betrothed his daughter to me with a portion of forty minae; then I shall prove that what I received was less by a thousand drachmae; and further that Polyeuctus always admitted that he was in my debt, and that he introduced to me Leocrates as guarantor[*]; and that at his death he directed by his will that pillars should be set up on the house in my favor for a thousand drachmae due on account of my wife’s portion.

(To the clerk.) Please call the witnesses.

The Witnesses

This, then, men of the jury, is one of the charges which I make against Spudias. And in this matter what stronger or more solid ground could I have in coming before you than the law which expressly ordains that, in all cases where men have given a mortgage, there shall be no right of action for them or for their heirs? But nevertheless it is to dispute this just provision that Spudias has come here.

A second claim, men of the jury, is the following: Aristogenes has deposed that Polyeuctus, when about to die, charged that there were due him from Spudias two minae with interest (this was the price of a domestic slave whom the defendant had bought from Polyeuctus, but had neither paid the money nor has now entered it in the general account); and furthermore there are eighteen hundred drachmae, regarding which I am myself at a loss to know what reasonable thing he will have to say.

He had borrowed the money from the wife of Polyeuctus, and there are papers which that lady left behind at her death, and the lady’s brothers are witnesses, for they were present at all times and questioned her on every point, that there might be no unpleasantness between us. It is, then, an outrageous and cruel thing, men of the jury, when I on my part, for everything which I either bought from Polyeuctus during his lifetime or received from his wife, have duly paid the price and the interest as well, and am now bringing into the general account everything which I owed,

that this fellow should show no regard either for your laws or for the will of Polyeuctus, or for the papers which have been left, or for those who knew the facts, but in the face of all this should have come into court to contest my plea.

(To the clerk.) Please take first the law which denies the right of action for mortgaged property against the holders of the mortgage, then the papers which were left, and the deposition of Aristogenes.

The Law. The Papers. The Deposition