Euxitheus Against Eubulides, an Appeal (66-70)

Many are the other deeds of theirs which I could point out and many the falsehoods which they have told, which I should be glad to enumerate to you; but as you consider these alien to the matter in hand, I will leave them out. Bear in mind, however, the following points, and see how many just arguments I have in coming before you. For, just as you question the Thesmothetae[*] in their scrutiny, I will in the same manner question myself before you.

Sir, who was your father?My father? Thucritus.Do any of your relatives give testimony in his favor?Certainly; first, four cousins; then, the son of a cousin; then, those who are married to the female cousins; then, the clansmen; then, those of the gens who worship Apollo, our ancestral god, and Zeus, the god of the household[*]; then, those who have the right to the same places of burial; then, the members of the deme, who testify that he has often passed the scrutiny and held office, and who are shown themselves to have cast their votes in his favor. In all that concerns my father, then, how could I prove my case to you more fairly or more convincingly? I will call my relatives before you, if you so wish.

Now hear the facts regarding my mother. My mother is Nicaretê, the daughter of Damostratus of Melitê. Who among her relatives give testimony? First, a nephew; then, two sons of her other nephew; then, the son of a cousin; then the sons of Protomachus, who was my mother’s former husband; then, Eunicus, of Cholargus, who married my sister, the daughter of Protomachus; then, my sister’s son.

More than this, the clansmen and the demesmen of her relatives have given this testimony. Of what, then, could you have further need? Yet again, that my father married my mother according to the laws, and that he gave a marriage-feast to the members of the clan, has been proved by testimony. And besides all this, I have shown that I myself have shared in all the privileges which befit free men. On all grounds, therefore, you will act in accordance with your oaths, if you give your verdict in my favour as justice and right demand.

Furthermore, men of the jury, when you question the nine archons, you ask whether they act dutifully toward their parents. I for my part am left without a father, but for my mother’s sake I beg and beseech you so to settle this trial as to restore to me the right to bury her in our ancestral tomb. Do not deny me this; do not make me a man without a country; do not cut me off from such a host of relatives, and bring me to utter ruin. Rather than abandon them, if it prove impossible for them to save me, I will kill myself, that at least I may be buried by them in my country.