The Double Indictment (26-30)

ORATORY

In the first place, men of Athens, I pray the gods and goddesses one and al] that as much good will as I steadily entertain toward the city and toward all.of you may be shown me by you in this case, and secondly that the gods may move you to do what is above all the just thing to do—to bid my

opponent hold his tongue and to let me make the complaint in the way that I have preferred and chosen. I cannot come to the same conclusion when I contemplate my own experiences and the speeches that I hear, for the speeches that he will make to you will be as like as can be to mine, but his actions, as you shall see, have gone so far that measures must be taken to prevent my experiencing worse injury at his hands[*] . . . But not to prolong my introduction when the water has been running freely this long time, I will begin my complaint.

ORATORY

When this man was a mere boy, gentlemen of the jury, still speaking with a foreign accent and I might almost say wearing a caftan in the Syrian style, I found him still wandering about in Ionia, not knowing what to do with himself; so I took him in hand and gave him an education. As it seemed to me that he was an apt pupil and paid strict attention to me—for he was subservient to me in those days and paid court to me and admired none but me—I turned my back upon all the others who were suing for my hand, although they were rich and goodlooking and of splendid ancestry, and plighted myself to this ingrate, who was poor and insignificant and young, bringing him a considerable dowry consisting in many marvellous speeches. Then, after we were married, I got him irregularly registered among my own clansmen and made him a citizen, so that those who had failed to secure my hand in marriage choked with envy. When he decided to go travelling in order to show how happily married he was, I did not

desert him even then, but trailed up and down after him everywhere and made him famous and renowned by giving him finery and dressing him out. On our travels in Greece and in Ionia I do not lay so much emphasis; but when he took a fancy to go to Italy, I crossed the Adriatic with him, and at length I journeyed with him as far as Gaul, where I made him rich.

For a long time he took my advice in everything and lived with me constantly, never spending a single night away from home:

ORATORY

but when he had laid in plenty of the sinews of war and thought that he was well off for reputation, he became supercilious and vain and neglected me, or rather deserted me completely. Having conceived an inordinate affection for that bearded man in the mantle, Dialogue, who is said to be the son of Philosophy and is older than he is, he lives with him. Showing no sense of shame, he has curtailed the freedom and the range of my speeches and has confined himself to brief, disjointed questions: and instead of saying whatever he wishes in a powerful voice, he fits together and spells out short paragraphs, for which he cannot get hearty praise or great applause from his hearers, but only a smile, or a restrained gesture of the hand, an inclination of the head, or a sigh to point his periods. That is the sort of thing this gallant gentleman fell in love with, despising me! They say, too, that he is not at peace with this favourite, either, but insults him in the same way.

ORATORY

Is he not, then, ungrateful and subject to punishment under the laws that concern desertion, inasmuch as he so disgracefully abandoned his lawful wife, from whom he received so much and through whom he is famous, and sought a new arrangement, now of all times, when I alone am admired and claimed as patroness by everyone? For my part I hold out against all those who court me, and when they knock at my door and call my name at the top of their lungs, I have no desire either to open or to reply, for I see that they bring with them nothing but their voices. But this man even then does not come back to me: no, he keeps his eyes upon his favourite. Ye gods, what good does he expect to get from him, knowing that he has nothing but his short cloak? I have finished, gentlemen of the jury. But I beg you, if he wishes to make his defence in my style of speaking, do not permit that, for it -would be unkind to turn my own weapon against me; let him defend himself, if he can, in the style of his favourite, Dialogue.

HERMES

That is unreasonable. It is not possible, Oratory, for him, all by himself, to make his defence after Dialogue’s manner. Let him make a speech as you did.

THE SYRIAN

Gentlemen of the jury, as my opponent was indignant at the thought of my using a long speech when I acquired my power of speaking from her, I shall not say much to you, but shall simply answer the main points of her complaint and then

leave it to you to weigh the whole question. In all that she told about me she told the truth. She gave me an education and went abroad with me and had me enfranchized as a Greek, and on this account, at least, I am grateful to her for marrying me. Why I left her and took to my friend here, Dialogue, listen, gentlemen of the jury, and you shall hear; and do not imagine that I am telling any falsehood for the sake of advantage.