[In the year that Aristarchus of Phalerum was archon,
on the seventh day of the month Pyanepsion, Sigma
brought suit against Tau before the seven Vowels for
assault and robbery, alleging that he had stolen all the
words that are pronounced mith double tau.]

 

Vowels of the jury, as long as the wrongs that I
underwent at the hands of this fellow Tau through
his misusing my property and establishing himself
where he had no business were but slight, I did not
take the injury to heart, and I ignored some of the
things that I heard because of the equable temper
which, as you know, I maintain toward you and the
other letters. But now that he has come to such a
pitch of self-seeking and lawlessness that, not content
with what I have repeatedly let pass in silence, he is
trying to wrest still more from me, I am compelled
to call him to account before you, who know both
sides. Besides all this, I am more than a little afraid
of my own ejection; for by making greater and


 

greater additions to what he has already done he will
altogether eject me from my own estate, so that if I
keep quiet I shall scarcely count at all as a letter,
and shall be no better than a hiss.