Theomnestus and Apollodorus Against Neaera (26-30)

After this, you must know, she plied her trade openly in Corinth and was quite a celebrity, having among other lovers Xenocleides the poet, and Hipparchus the actor, who kept her on hire. To prove the truth of my statement I cannot bring before you the testimony of Xenocleides, since the laws do not permit him to testify.

For when on the advice of Callistratus you undertook to aid the Lacedaemonians,[*] he at that time opposed in the assembly the vote to do so, because he had purchased the right to collect the two per cent tax on grain during the peace, and was obliged to deposit his collections in the senate-chamber during each prytany. For this he was entitled to exemption under the laws and did not go out on that expedition; but he was indicted by this man Stephanus for avoidance of military duty, and being slanderously maligned in the latter’s speech before the court, was convicted and deprived of his civic rights.

And yet do you not count it a monstrous thing that this Stephanus has taken the right of free speech from those who are native-born citizens and are lawful members of our commonwealth, and in defiance of all the laws forces upon you as Athenians those who have no such right? I will, however, call Hipparchus himself and force him either to give testimony or take the oath of disclaimer, or I will subpoena him.[*]

(To the clerk.) Please call Hipparchus.

The Deposition

Hipparchus of Athmonon[*] deposes that Xenocleides and he hired in Corinth Neaera, the present defendant, as a courtesan who prostituted herself for money, and that Neaera used to drink at Corinth in the company of himself and Xenocleides the poet.

After this, then, she had two lovers, Timanoridas the Corinthian and Eucrates the Leucadian.[*] These men seeing that Nicaretê was extravagant in the sums she exacted from them, for she demanded that they should supply the entire daily expenses of the household, paid down to Nicaretê thirty minae as the price of Neaera’s person, and purchased the girl outright from her in accordance with the law of the city, to be their slave.

And they kept her and made use of her as long a time as they pleased. When, however, they were about to marry, they gave her notice that they did not want to see her, who had been their own mistress, plying her trade in Corinth or living under the control of a brothel-keeper; but that they would be glad to recover from her less than they had paid down, and to see her reaping some advantage for herself. They offered, therefore, to remit one thousand drachmae toward the price of her freedom, five hundred drachmae apiece; and they bade her, when she found the means, to pay them the twenty minae. When she heard this proposal from Eucrates and Timanoridas, she summoned to Corinth among others who had been her lovers Phrynion of Paeania,[*] the son of Demon and the brother of Demochares, a man who was living a licentious and extravagant life, as the older ones among you remember.