[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.

 

It is fitting, then, that you who are now on the
jury and all the other letters, too, should be on your
guard against his pernicious activity, for if anyone
who wants to may work his way out of his own place
into someone else’s, and if you Vowels, without whom
nothing can be written that means anything, are
going to permit this, I do not see how society is
to keep the orthodox distinctions of rank which
were fixed for it in the beginning. But I do not
think you will ever reach such a pitch of negligence
and carelessness as to permit anything unjust, and
even if you do shirk your duty I cannot overlook my
wrongs. If only the others had been thwarted in
their audacity long ago, when they first began to be
law-breakers!

 

In that case, Lambda would not be at
war with Rho, disputing the possession of pumice-stone (κίσηλις—κίσηρις) and headaches (κεφαλαλγάα—κεφαλαργία), nor would Gamma be quarreiling with
Kappa and again and again almost coming to blows
with him at the fuller’s (γναφεῖον—κναφεῖον) over
pillows (γνάφαλλα—κνάφαλλα), and he would have
been prevented from fighting with Lambda, too,
openly stealing from him with some difficulty (μόλις—μόγις) and slyly filching without any doubt (μάλιστα—
μάγιστα The word μάλιστα may have been pronounced μάγιστα by
the common people at some time or other. I know of no
evidence that it was ever so written. ); and the rest would also have refrained
from beginning illegal confusion. Surely it is best
for each of us to stay in the place which belongs to



 

him: to go wher one has no right is the act of a
law-breaker.