Now if the boy had been living with him, there could be some show of reason in his lie that I was driven by my desire to an act of quite improbable folly: but the fact is that the boy would not even talk to him, but hated him more than anyone in the world, and was actually living with me. So who of you can believe that I previously left the city on a voyage with the boy to avoid a fight with this man, and then, when I had got back, I took him to Simon’s house, where I was to expect most embarrassment? And though I had designs on him, I came utterly unprepared, without calling to my aid either friends or servants or anybody at all, save only this child, who would have been unable to support me, but was capable of giving information under torture If Theodotus was a free Plataean, he would have the same rights as an Athenian citizen, and could not be subjected to torture. Perhaps he or his father was a Plataean slave, like Pancleon (see Lys. 23 , Against Pancleon ), or had not yet established his claim to the citizenship. Cf. Aristoph. Frogs 694 . upon any crime that I might commit!