Apollodorus Against Stephanus, Charged with False Testimony I (62-64)

Who is there, men of the jury, who, on a charge like that, if he were sure of his innocence, would not have accepted the torture? Then, by refusing the torture, he is convicted of the theft. Now do you think that a man would be ashamed of the reputation of having borne false witness, who did not shrink from being proved a thief? Or that he would hesitate to give false witness at the request of another, when, at no man’s bidding, he voluntarily committed a fraud?

Now, men of the jury, while he might justly be made to pay the penalty for all these things, he deserves even more to be punished in your court for the rest of his conduct. Observe the kind of a life he has lived, and judge. For so long as it was the lot of Aristolochus, the banker, to enjoy prosperity, this fellow fawned upon him as he walked beside him, adapting his pace to his, and this is well known to many of you who are present here.

But when Aristolochus was ruined and lost his property, chiefly through having been plundered by this fellow and others of his stamp, Stephanus never stood by the son of Aristolochus, who was overburdened with lawsuits, nor aided him, but it was Apolexis[*] or Solon or anybody else that helped him rather than he. Then he has courted Phormio and become intimate with him, choosing him out of all the Athenians; and he sailed to Byzantium[*] as agent in his interest, when the Byzantines detained Phormio’s vessels, and he pleaded his cause against the Calchedonians,[*] and he has thus flagrantly given false witness against me.