Unknown Pleader Against Phaenippus, On an Exchange of Properties (6-10)

Then I sealed the buildings, and bade Phaenippus to proceed to my property. After this I asked him where his threshed grain was, for by the gods and goddesses, men of the jury, there were two threshing-floors there, each one of nearly a plethron in extent.[*] He answered me that some of the grain had been sold, and that some was stored within.

Finally, to make a long story short, I stationed men inside to keep watch, and by Zeus I gave strict orders to the ass-drivers and made them stop carrying off timber from the farm (for in addition to the rest of his property Phaenippus has also this very considerable source of revenue: six asses carry off wood the whole year through, and he receives more than twelve drachmae a day). I forbade the ass-drivers, as I said, to touch the wood, and after giving notice to Phaenippus to attend the sacrifice,[*] as the law commands, I went back to the city.

First, now, I will produce for you the depositions substantiating what I have said, and then you shall hear the entire truth about the other aspects of the case. For you will find, men of the jury, that this fellow Phaenippus began from the very first day to act in utter disregard of right. I sealed the buildings, as the law permitted me; he opened them. And he acknowledges that he removed the seal, but does not acknowledge that he opened the door, as if men removed the seals for any other purpose than to open the doors.

Then I had forbidden that wood should be carried off; he carried it off every day except that on which I issued the order. There was no debt charged against the farm; he now reports a number of debts. In a word, he does just what he pleases, not what the laws bid him do.

(To the clerk.) Read the depositions, first those concerning the mine, and then the others as well.

The Depositions

The wrongs, therefore, which Phaenippus began to do to me beginning with the very first day after the tendering of the exchanges, you have heard, men of Athens, both from myself and from the witnesses; but the things which he did after this have been offences, not against me only, but also against the laws, to the defence of which you are all bound to rally.