Sositheus Against Macartatus in Regard to the Estate of Hagnias (69-72)

For no sooner had Theopompus got the award of the estate of Hagnias in the manner which you have heard, than he at once gave proof that he knew well that he was in possession of what in no sense belonged to him. The thing which was of the greatest value on the farms belonging to Hagnias, and which was most admired by the neighbors and by everybody else, was the olive trees. These they dug up and rooted out, more than a thousand trees, from which a large quantity of oil was produced. These trees our opponents rooted out and sold, and received a huge sum of money. And they did this while the estate of Hagnias was still subject to adjudication in accordance with the very law which had permitted them to cite the mother of this boy here.

To prove that I speak the truth in this, that they rooted up the olive trees from the farms which Hagnias left, I will produce for you as witnesses the neighbors and others whom we summoned, when we made a solemn protest against this action.

(To the clerk.) Read the deposition.

Deposition

The deponents testify that on being summoned by Sositheus they accompanied him to Araphen,[*] to the lands of Hagnias, after Theopompus had had the estate of Hagnias adjudged to him, and that Sositheus showed them the olive trees being rooted up from the land of Hagnias.

If now, men of the jury, it were against the dead man only that they had committed an outrage in doing this, their conduct would have been disgraceful, though in a less degree; but in reality it is against the whole city that they have committed this outrage, and they have broken your laws. You will know this, when you have heard the law.

(To the clerk.) Read the law.

The Law

If anyone shall dig up an olive tree at Athens, except it be for a sanctuary of the Athenian state or of one of its demes, or for his own use to the number of two olive trees each year, or except it be needful to use it for the service of one who is dead, he shall be fined one hundred drachmae, to he paid into the public treasury, for each tree, and the tenth part of this sum shall belong to the goddess. Furthermore he shall be obligated to pay to the private individual who prosecutes him one hundred drachmae for each olive tree. And suits concerning these matters shall be brought before the archons, according as they severally have jurisdiction. And the prosecutor shall deposit the court fees for his share. And when a person shall have been convicted, the archon before whom the case was brought shall make a report to the collectors of the amount due to the treasury, and of the amount due to the goddess, to the treasurers of the goddess. And if they fail to make such reports, they shall themselves be liable for the amount.

The law is thus severe. But pray ponder in your minds, men of the jury, what you must imagine us to have suffered in the past from these men and the insolence of these men, when they have shown contempt toward you, so great a people, and have done what the laws expressly forbid their doing, in thus contemptuously laying waste the farms which Hagnias left. The law forbids anyone to root up any of these things even out of his own land inherited from his fathers. Much indeed do these men care either about obedience to your laws or the saving of the house of Hagnias from extinction!