I betook myself to the Peiraeus; but this man, observing immediately that Theodotus had arrived and was staying with Lysimachus,—who lived hard by the house that this man had rented—invited some of his friends to join him: they all had luncheon and drank, and they posted watchers on the roof so that,when the boy should come out, they might seize upon him.

At this moment I arrived from the Peiraeus, and in passing I turned into Lysimachus’s house: after spending some little time there, we came out. Then those people, already drunk, sprang out upon us; some of his party refused to join in his criminal action, but Simon here, and Theophilus, Protarchus and Autocles began dragging the boy along. He, however, flung off his cloak and ran away.

Then I, expecting that he would make good his escape, while they, if they met anybody, would at once turn aside from a feeling of shame,— with this conclusion I took myself off by another street; so careful I was to give them a wide berth, for I regarded all the proceedings of these men as a grievous misfortune to myself.

Thus, on the spot where Simon says that the fight occurred, nobody on either their or my side had his head broken or received any other hurt: as witnesses to all this I will produce to you the persons who were then present.

WitnessesThat this man, then, was the wrongdoer, gentlemen, and that he had designs on us, and not I on him, has been testified to you by those who were then present. After this the boy took refuge in a fuller’s shop; but these men dashed in after him and laid violent hands on him, while he shouted and cried out and called the bystanders to witness.