another account, just as it suits him. Euergus simply says that, as he did not get his interest, and as the plaintiff did not perform any other part of the agreement, he went and took what belonged to him from the plaintiff with his consent; that the plaintiff went away, and afterwards brought persons to make a claim to the property; that he (Euergus) would not relinquish his right to those persons, but did not object to the plaintiff's holding what he had taken a lease of, provided he would perform the terms of his contract. Such are the accounts I get from these men. I am sure however of this, that, if Pantænetus speaks the truth, and has been hardly treated, as he says he has been, by Euergus, he has recovered the sum at which he laid his damages; for he came into court before you and obtained judgment against him; and surely he ought not to get compensation for the same injury as well from the guilty party, as from me, who was not even in the country. On the other hand, if Euergus speaks the truth, it would appear that he has been harassed by vexatious proceedings; yet even in that case I ought not to be sued for the same matter.

I will first prove these statements, and produce the witnesses before you.

[Witnesses.]

That the same man who had originally purchased this property was the vendor of it to us-that the plaintiff by virtue of the agreement became lessee of the mine-pit and the slaves, they being our property-that I was not present at the transaction which took place afterwards between Euergus and the plaintiff, and indeed that I was not even in the country-that he commenced an action against Euergus, and never made any complaint against me-all this you hear from the witnesses, men of the jury. When I returned home, after having lost almost all that I sailed out with, I heard, and found it was the fact, that Pantænetus had left the works, and that Euergus had taken absolute possession of what we had purchased. I was vastly annoyed, seeing that the thing had come to a pretty pass; for I must either

1

1 apeσTηKÓTα. Reiske-"destitisse ab exercenda officina metallica." Schafer "excidisse officina." Pabst-" das Gewerk verlassen und abgetreteu."

carry on and manage the business in partnership with Euergus, or have Euergus for my debtor instead of the plaintiff, and draw up a new lease and enter into a contract with him; and neither of these alternatives was agreeable to me. Being displeased at the state of things which I tell you of, and happening to see Mnesicles who had sold us the property, I went up to him and complained that he had introduced such a person to me, and I asked him about the claimants and what it all meant. On hearing this, he laughed at the claimants, but said they wished to meet and confer with me, and he himself would bring us together and would advise the plaintiff to do everything that was right in regard to me, and he thought he should prevail on him. When we met-I need not go into particulars—the men came, who pretended to have lent money to the plaintiff on the mine-pit and the slaves which we bought from Mnesicles; and there was nothing straightforward or honest about them. As all their statements were shown to be false, and Mnesicles established the fact of our purchase, they give us a challenge, thinking we should not accept it, proposing that we should either take all our money from them and withdraw, or pay them their demands; for (they said) the security which we held was worth far more than what we had lent. The moment I heard this proposal, without even taking time for consideration, I agreed to take my money, and I persuaded Euergus to do the same. After the thing had gone thus far, and the time had come for us to receive our money, the persons who had made that offer said they would not pay it unless we would be the vendors of the property to them; in this at least showing some sense, men of Athens; for they saw the pettifogging tricks which this man was playing us.

To prove the truth of these statements, please to take these further depositions.

[The Depositions.]

When the thing stood in this way, and the persons whom the plaintiff had introduced would not part with the money, and it was manifest that we were rightfully in possession of what we had purchased, he begged, prayed, and entreated us to become the vendors. As he begged me so strongly, and was so pressing and urgent, I gave way upon this point also.

Seeing however, men of Athens, that he was an ill-conditioned person that at first he abused Mnesicles to me, and had afterwards quarrelled with Euergus, with whom he was on terms of the closest friendship-that immediately after my return he pretended to have been glad to see me, but again, when it became necessary to do what was right, he lost his temper with me—that he was friendly with all men until he got some advantage and attained his objects, but afterwards fell out and was at enmity with them-I required that, if I withdrew and assumed the character of vendor in respect of his property, I should come to a final settlement with him and be discharged and released from all demands. This being agreed to, the plaintiff gave me a full discharge, and I, in pursuance of his request, became vendor of the property, to the same extent as I had myself purchased it from Mnesicles. Having then got back my money, and having done not a tittle of wrong to the plaintiff, by the Gods, I never imagined that, happen what might, he would bring an action against me.

These, men of the jury, are the facts, upon which you will have to give your verdict; these are the circumstances, under which I have pleaded a special plea in bar of this pettifogging action. I will produce witnesses, who were present when I was released and discharged by the plaintiff; and after that I will show, that the action is by law not maintainable Please to read this deposition.

[The Deposition.]

Now read the deposition of the purchasers-to show you that I sold the things at the plaintiff's request, to the persons whom he desired.

[The Deposition.]

Not only are these my witnesses, that I have been released and am now sued vexatiously; but Pantænetus himself is my witness also. For, when he brought his action against Euergus without suing me, he bore witness that he had no further claim against me; for surely, when the same wrongs had to be dealt with,1 if he had the like claim against both,

1 Pabst: "wo es sich um gleiche Vergehungen handelte, wenn er uns Beide wirklich rechtmässig hätte anklagen können."

he would not have sued the one, and forborne to sue the other. That the laws allow no fresh actions in cases which have been thus settled, you are aware, I presume, without my telling you: however-read them this law.

[The Law.]

You hear the law, men of the jury, expressly declaring, that there shall be no further actions in cases where any one has given a release and discharge. That both these 1 have been effected between the plaintiff and me, you have heard from the witnesses. In no cases where the laws have forbidden it ought people to sue, but especially not in these. Of things done by public authority it may be said, that they have been done unjustly or improperly; and of the decisions of a court of justice it may be alleged, that the court was led into error; and, with respect to the other cases mentioned in the law, a plausible objection may be raised to every one of them. But when a man has himself yielded and released his claim, it does not lie in his mouth surely, to object to his own act, and charge himself with injustice. People who sue contrary to any other of these provisions fail to abide by a settlement which others have made; but he who commences fresh proceedings for a claim of which he has given a release, fails to abide by his own settlement. Such a person therefore deserves the utmost severity.

I have thus shown you that he released me from all demands when I became vendor of the slaves; and the statute which you have just heard read proves that actions for such demands are not allowed by the laws. However, that none

1 Pabst says in a note, that, as the Greek words àpîкev and ả¤ýλλažev signify nearly the same thing, the meaning must be that "Pantænetus had not only released him from all demands, but brought an action notwithstanding."

He must have forgotten the similar passage in the last oration (orig. p. 952), where it is manifest that duoórepa relates only to the words ἀφῆκεν and ἀπήλλαξεν. The orator there says : & τῷδε γέγονεν ἀμφότερα καὶ γὰρ ἀφῆκε καὶ ἀπήλλαξεν.

Pabst is quite right in supposing that the two Greek verbs have no distinct meanings; and there is little or no point in the phrase adopted by the speaker, that he had had "both a release and a discharge." I take it that Athenian lawyers, like English, occasionally used superfluous synonyms ex abundanti cauteld. We say in deeds-"release discharge and quit claim."

of you, men of Athens, may suppose that I have recourse to this plea because I have the worst of it on the merits of the case, I will proceed to show you, that every particular of his charge against me is false. Read the record of the plaint:

THE PLAINT.

"Nicobulus hath done me damage, for that he laid a plot to injure me and my property, having ordered Antigenes his servant to take away from my servant the silver which he was bringing to be paid to the state for the mine which I purchased for ninety minas,1 and for that he caused me to be registered as debtor to the treasury for double the amount."

Stop. All these charges, which he has now preferred against me, he made before against Euergus and got judgment in the cause. It has been proved to you in evidence at the commencement of my address, that I was out of the country when the quarrel took place between these men; however, it is apparent also from this plaint. For he has nowhere stated, that I have done any of these things, but, after premising that I laid a plot against him and his property, he says that I ordered my slave to do these acts, which is false; for how could I give such an order, when at the time that I sailed from Athens I could not possibly have any knowledge of what was going to take place here? Besides, what an absurdity it is, when he says that I laid a plot to disfranchise him and bring him to ruin, to have declared that I ordered a servant to do things which even a citizen would not venture to do to another citizen! What then is the meaning of this? I take it that, having no means of fastening any of these things on me on account of my absence abroad, as he wished to go on with his pettifogging action, he inserted a charge that I gave the order; for there was not the shadow of a case, if he had not done this. Read the next clause.

THE PLAINT.

"And for that, after I had incurred the penalty to the state, he placed Antigenes his servant in my pit near Thrasyllus 1 This was most probably (as Böckh supposes) the premium or purchase-money for the mine. But Böckh is in error when he says that Pantænetus purchased the mine from the State. He purchased it from Telemachus, who had probably just taken his lease from the State, and the premium was not paid till after the transfer, and some time after the mine had been opened. See the Argument, page 220.