Aristodemus Against Leochares Regarding the Estate of Archiades (3-5)

I beg you, men of the jury, to come to the aid of my father and myself, if our pleading shall seem just, and not suffer men who are poor and without influence to be crushed by the lawless men marshalled against us. For we have come before you relying upon the truth, well content if we are permitted to obtain our legal rights; while our adversaries have from the first never ceased to rely upon intrigue and the spending of money, and very naturally in my opinion; for they readily make expenditures from funds which belong to others, and so have provided themselves with a host of people who will speak in their behalf and give false testimony.

My father here (for the truth shall be told you) comes into court with manifest signs that he is, as you are all aware, a poor man, and that he knows nothing of pleading in court; for he has long been a public crier in Peiraeus, and this is not only a sign of the poverty which is common to man, but also of the fact that he has no time to meddle with the law; for a man so employed has to spend the whole day in the market-place. If you bear this in mind, you will be forced to conclude that, if we did not rely upon the justice of our cause, we should never have come before you at all.

With reference to matters of this nature you will gain clearer information in the course of my address, but I think I must now inform you about the affidavit and the case at issue. If, men of the jury, Leochares, basing his defence upon the affidavit itself, were going to prove that he is the lawfully born son of Archiades, there would be no need of many words, nor any need that I should trace our family line back to its origin;