Ariston Against Conon, an Action for Assault (26-30)

I wish now to tell you what they sought to do at the arbitration; for from this you will perceive their utter insolence. They spun out the time till past midnight, refusing to read the depositions or to put in copies; leading to the altar one at a time our witnesses who were present and putting them on oath; writing depositions which had nothing to do with the case (for instance that Ctesias was the son of Conon by a mistress, and that he had been treated thus and so[*])—a course of action, men of the jury, which I assure you by the gods roused resentment and disgust in the mind of every one present; and finally they were disgusted at themselves.

Be that as it may, when they had had their fill and were tired of acting thus, they put in a challenge with a view to gaining time and preventing the boxes from being sealed, offering to deliver up certain slaves, whose names they wrote down, to be examined as to the assault. And I fancy that their defence will hinge chiefly upon this point. I think, however, that you should all note one thing—that if these men tendered the challenge in order that the inquiry by the torture should take place, and had confidence in this method of proof, they would not have tendered it when the award was now just being announced, when night had fallen and no further pretext was left them;

no, before the action had been brought, while I was lying ill and not knowing whether I should recover, and was denouncing the defendant to all who came to see me as the one who dealt the first blow and was the perpetrator of most of the maltreatment I received,—it was then, I say, that he would have come to my house without delay, bringing with him a number of witnesses; it was then that he would have offered to deliver up his slaves for the torture, and would have invited some members of the Areopagus to attend; for if I had died, the case would have come before them.

But if he was unaware of this situation, and having this proof, as he will now say, made no preparation against so serious a danger, surely when I had left my sick bed and summoned him, he would at our first meeting before the arbitrator have shown himself ready to deliver up the slaves. But he did nothing of the kind.

To prove that I am speaking the truth, and that the challenge was tendered merely for the sake of gaining time, read this deposition. It will be clear from this.

The Deposition

With regard to the examination by the torture, then, bear these facts in mind: the time when the challenge was tendered, his evasive purpose in doing this, and the first occasions, in the course of which he showed that he did not wish this test to be accorded him, and neither proposed it nor demanded it. Since, however, he was convicted on all these points before the arbitrator, just as he is now, and proved manifestly guilty of all the charges against him,