To speak at length upon this matter, gentlemen of the jury, is both beyond my powers and, to my mind, unnecessary; but that I am correct in obtaining leave for my suit against this man Pancleon as being no Plataean, I will attempt to prove to you.

As he continued to injure me for a long time, I went to the fuller’s where he was working and summoned him before the Polemarch,The third archon, who had to decide whether proceedings should be taken against an alien. supposing him to be a resident alien. On his stating that he was a Plataean, I asked to what township he belonged, since one of my witnesses there advised me to summon him also before the court of the tribe of which he might pretend to be a member. When he replied to Decelea, I summoned him before the court of tribe Hippothontis;

I then went and asked at barber’s in the street of the Hermae,These figures stood in a covered way beside the marketplace. where the Deceleans resort, and I inquired of such Deceleans as I could discover if they knew a certain Pancleon belonging to the township of Decelea. As nobody spoke to knowing him, and I learnt that he was then a defendant in some other suits before the Polemarch, and had been cast in some, I took proceedings on my own part.

So now, in the first place, I will produce to you as witnesses some Deceleans whom I questioned, and after them the other persons who have taken proceedings against him before the Polemarch and have obtained a conviction,—as many as chance to be present. Please stop the water.Which ran from a globe, measuring the time allotted to the speaker, and was stopped during the reading or speaking of evidence.

WitnessesRelying on this evidence I took proceedings against him before the Polemarch: but he then put in a demurrer against the admissibility of my suit; and as I felt it important to avoid any imputation of oppressive aims, instead of a desire to get satisfaction for my wrongs, I first asked Euthycritus, whom I knew as the oldest citizen of Plataea and whom I supposed to be best informed, whether he knew a certain Pancleon, son of Hipparmodorus, a Plataean.