Theomnestus and Apollodorus Against Neaera (51-55)

Phrastor, seeing that she was not a decent woman and that she was not minded to listen to his advice, and, further, having learned now beyond all question that she was the daughter, not of Stephanus, but of Neaera, and that he had been deceived in the first place at the time of the betrothal, when he had received her as the daughter, not of Neaera, but of Stephanus by an Athenian woman, whom he had married before he lived with Neaera—angered at all this and considering that he had been treated with outrage and hoodwinked, he put away the woman after living with her for about a year, she being pregnant at the time, and refused to pay back the marriage portion.

Stephanus brought suit for alimony against him in the Odeum[*] in accordance with the law which enacts that, if a man puts away his wife, he must pay back the marriage portion or else pay interest on it at the rate of nine obols a month for each mina[*]; and that on the woman’s behalf her guardian may sue him for alimony in the Odeum. Phrastor, on his part, preferred an indictment against Stephanus before the Thesmothetae, charging that he had betrothed to him, being an Athenian, the daughter of an alien woman as though she were his own. This was in accordance with the following law.

(To the clerk.) Read it, please.

The Law

If anyone shall give an alien woman in marriage to an Athenian man, representing her as being related to himself, he shall lose his civic rights and his property shall be confiscated, and a third part of it shall belong to the one who secures his conviction. And anyone entitled to do so may indict such a person before the Thesmothetae, just as in the case of usurpation of citizenship.

The clerk has read you the law in accordance with which this fellow Stephanus was indicted by Phrastor before the Thesmothetae. Stephanus, then, knowing that, if he were convicted of having given in marriage the daughter of an alien woman, he would be liable to the heaviest penalties, came to terms with Phrastor and relinquished his claim to marriage portion, and withdrew his action for alimony; and Phrastor on his part withdrew indictment from the Thesmothetae.

To prove that my statements are true, I will call before you as witness to these facts Phrastor himself, and will compel him to give testimony as the law commands.

(To the clerk.) Please call Phrastor of Aegilia.

The Deposition

Phrastor of Aegilia deposes that, when he learned that Stephanus had given him in marriage a daughter of Neaera, representing that she was his own daughter, he lodged an indictment against him before the Thesmothetae, as the law provides, and drove the woman from his house, and ceased to live with her any longer; and that after Stephanus had brought suit against him in the Odeum for alimony, he made an arrangement with him on the terms that the indictment before the Thesmothetae should be withdrawn, and also the suit for alimony which Stephanus had brought against me.

Now let me bring before you another deposition of Phrastor and his clansmen and the members of his gens, which proves that the defendant Neaera is an alien. Not long after Phrastor had sent away the daughter of Neaera, he fell sick. He got into a dreadful condition and became utterly helpless. There was an old quarrel between him and his own relatives, toward whom he cherished anger and hatred; and besides he was childless. Being cajoled, therefore, in his illness by the attentions of Neaera and her daughter—