Theomnestus and Apollodorus Against Neaera (11-15)

Now, men of the jury, I would have you ask yourselves, considering in your own minds the natural course of events, what I could have done with myself and my wife and my sister, if it had fallen to the lot of Apollodorus to suffer any of the injuries which this fellow Stephanus plotted to inflict upon him in either the former or the latter trial, or how great were the disgrace and the ruin in which I should have been involved.

People came to me privately from all sides exhorting me to exact punishment from my opponent for the wrongs he had done us. They flung in my teeth the charge that I was the most cowardly of humankind, if, being so closely related to them, I did not take vengeance for the injuries done my sister, my father-in-law, my sister’s children, and my own wife, and if I did not bring before you this woman who is guilty of such flagrant impiety toward the gods, of such outrage toward the commonwealth, and of such contempt for your laws, and by prosecuting her and by my arguments convicting her of crime, to enable you to deal with her as you might see fit.

And as Stephanus here sought to deprive me of my relatives contrary to your laws and your decrees, so I too have come before you to prove that Stephanus is living with an alien woman contrary to the law; that he has introduced children not his own to his fellow-clansmen and demesmen; that he has given in marriage the daughters of courtesans as though they were his own; that he is guilty of impiety toward the gods; and that he nullifies the right of your people to bestow its own favors, if it chooses to admit anyone to citizenship; for who will any longer seek to win this reward from you and to undergo heavy expense and much trouble in order to become a citizen, when he can get what he wants from Stephanus at less expense, assuming that the result for him is to be the same?

The injuries, then, which I have suffered at the hands of Stephanus, and which led me to prefer this indictment, I have told you. I must now prove to you that this woman Neaera is an alien, that she is living with this man Stephanus as his wife, and that she has violated the laws of the state in many ways. I make of you, therefore, men of the jury, a request which seems to me a proper one for a young man and one without experience in speaking—that you will permit me to call Apollodorus as advocate to assist me in this trial.

For he is older than I and is better acquainted with the laws. He has studied all these matters with the greatest care, and he too has been wronged by this fellow Stephanus so that no one can object to his seeking vengeance upon the one who injured him without provocation. It is your duty, in the light of truth itself, when you have heard the exact nature both of the accusation and the defense, then and not till then to reach a verdict which will be in the interest of the gods of the laws, of justice, and of your own selves.

(Apollodorus, as co-pleaser, speaks.)