Callistratus Against Olympiodorus, an Action for Damages (36-40)

Now hear the reason which he gives for not paying me what is due, and for refusing to do anything whatever that is fair; and to this, men of the jury, I bid you give close heed, in order that you may not be misled presently by the orators whom he has engaged against me.

This defendant never says the same thing, but one thing now and another then, just as it happens. He goes about bringing forward absurd excuses, baseless insinuations, and false charges, and acts in the whole business as a man of bad faith.

Hosts of people have heard him say, sometimes that he never got the money from the slave at all; but again, when the contrary has been proved, he says that he got the money from his own slave, and that he will give me no share of this money or of anything else of the estate which Comon left.

And when anyone of our common friends asks him why he refuses to pay me, when he has sworn to share everything equally and when the articles of agreement are still in custody, he asserts that I have broken the agreement and have treated him outrageously, and he states that I have all along been speaking and acting in opposition to him. These are the excuses he offers.

The statements which the fellow makes, men of the jury, are insinuations which he has himself made up, false excuses, and bits of trickery, got up with a view to defrauding me of what he ought to pay me. But what I shall say to you to prove that he is lying will be no mere insinuation on the contrary I shall prove in glaring fashion his shamelessness, advancing proofs that are trustworthy and known to everybody, and bringing forward witnesses regarding every point.

In the first place, men of the jury, I say that the defendant refused to refer our differences to our common friends and relatives who had full knowledge of all the circumstances of the case, and had followed them from the beginning; for this reason, that he had full knowledge that if he made use of any falsehoods, he would be refuted by them on the spot, whereas he thinks that now he may perhaps lie before you without being detected.