It was but fair therefore that the valuation of these articles should be included in the forty minas, as he had paid Leocrates for them, and they exceeded what were given

to me.

Please to take this schedule first, and read to them what each of us has in his possession: after that, read the depositions of the arbitrators, that the jury may see, that Spudias has received property to a much more considerable amount, and that Leocrates made a complaint upon the subject, and the arbitrators decided it accordingly. Read.

[The Schedule. The Depositions.]

Is it not manifest, that the defendant has received forty minas for his wife's portion long ago, whilst I have received thirty minas, as he has, but, so far from having afterwards got the thousand drachms, I am now contesting the question whether I have not received them wrongfully? It was for this reason, men of the jury, that Spudias would not leave the settlement of our disputes to the decision of friends, because then the injustice of his case must have been detected; for, as they were present at all these transactions and knew everything about them, they would not have allowed him to assert what he pleased; whereas before you he imagines he can prevail over my truthful statements by falsehood. I have laid my whole case before you as clearly as I was able to do myself: the defendant dared not come before those acquainted with the facts, thinking that it would have been out of his power to give them a false account. Don't you

permit him any more than they would have done, to give utterance to lies and calumnies; but keep in mind what you have heard, men of the jury: for you know the whole history of the case, unless I have omitted something from being compelled to speak with a short allowance in the waterglass.

Wolf therefore not unnaturally suspects that there is some trick in the argument.

The schedule afterwards put in contained probably an enumeration of the articles of dress, &c. which each party's wife had received.

THE ORATION AGAINST PHÆNIPPUS.

THE ARGUMENT.

THIS was a proceeding arising out of that remarkable regulation of the Athenian law, called the Exchange of estates; whereby a person burthened with one of the public offices, as the trierarchy, or included in one of the higher classes of tax-payers, or in the select body of Three-hundred, was enabled to obtain relief, by requiring some richer person than himself either to take the public burden in his stead or to exchange properties with him. A summary of the law upon the subject has been given in the first Volume of this Translation, Appendices IV and V. The reader will find it more fully discussed in Böckh's Public Economy of Athens, and may compare what I have said upon one branch of the subject in the note to page 116 of this Volume.

The complainant in the present case, whose name does not appear, had for some time been included in the select body of Three-hundred, who were not only subject to the highest rate of assessment to the property-tax, but were called upon, in case of necessity, to pay the whole tax in advance. Having lost three talents by the forfeiture of a mine, and sustained other misfortunes in his business, it became necessary for him to seek the relief which the law afforded. Accordingly, at the court held by the Generals in the month of Metagitnion, he applied for relief, and named Phænippus as a person who ought to be substituted in his stead. Notice of the intended appeal had of course been given to Phænippus; and he attended at the court, and disputed his liability. To determine whether he was liable or not, (which question, if not amicably settled, must in due course be brought before a jury,) an account had to be taken of the estates of both parties, of what they respectively consisted, and their comparative values. Each was obliged to give to the other a schedule or inventory of all that he possessed; and each had a right to inspect and examine the lands, goods, and chattels of his opponent, so that no fraud, by way of removal or otherwise, might be practised in the interval before the final hearing of the case. The complainant availed himself of this right without delay, and proceeded to a farm which Phænippus possessed in the district of Cytherus. It was of considerable extent, being more than five miles in circumference. He went all round it with witnesses, and bade them take notice, that there were no tablets of mortgage put up on the land. At the mansion or farm-house he put his seals on the doors, got the necessary information about the farming stock; finding that there was a

large quantity of timber on the land, he gave special notice that none should be carried away, left some servants of his own to keep watch on the premises, and desired Phænippus to make a similar examination of his (the complainant's) property.

On the eleventh day of the following month (Boedromion) the parties were sworn to furnish true accounts. They were bound by law to deliver their inventories in three days after. Phænippus however made some overture for an accommodation, and obtained an enlargement of the time. It was arranged that the parties should meet on the twenty-third of Boedromion, to see if they could come to a settlement, and that Phænippus should deliver his inventory on the twenty-fifth. This arrangement was not carried out; for Phænippus failed to attend the meeting, or to deliver his inventory on the day appointed; consequently there was no alternative but to prepare for trial. A day was appointed for it, and Phænippus gave in a schedule of his effects three days before.

At the trial the important thing to be shown on behalf of the complainant was, that his adversary's estate so far exceeded his own in value, as to give him an equitable right to the interference of the court. If he could not establish this satisfactorily, the complaint would be dismissed: if he did establish it, then, as we know, the respondent would have the option, either to take the petitioner's place among the Three-hundred, or to make an exchange of properties with him. If he chose the former, it was a simple affair; if the latter, a variety of questions might arise as to the best mode of carrying out the exchange, and with respect to the accounts which each party had given in, whether they were full and correct, or whether there had been any mistake or misrepresentation or concealment. In our dearth of information upon these points, we are unable to ascertain how far the same court which first decreed relief was competent to decide upon these ulterior questions; or whether it was the practice to grant adjournments, or impanel another jury, for the purpose of any further direction. It is not improbable however, that the disclosure of facts which took place upon the first inquiry, or the expression of an opinion thereupon by the jury, would frequently induce the parties to come to a settlement out of

court.

In the present case the speaker labours to show that the property of Phænippus was considerably greater than his own, and that he had resorted to illegal and unfair devices to conceal its amount. He had delayed the trial, and kept back his inventory until the last three days, evidently for a dishonest purpose. In the meantime he had broken the seals which had been placed on the doors of the farmhouse; he had carried away corn, wine, timber, and other things; he had set up notices of mortgage on the land, which were not there when the complainant first examined it, and he had made out a fraudulent inventory, pretending that his estate was subject to debts, all of which were purely fictitious.

The complainant urges his claim to relief on account of the misfortunes which he had incurred in his mining speculations. While the mining interest had been greatly depressed, the agriculturist class, to which

Phænippus belonged, had been enjoying a high degree of prosperity. It was but fair that the burden should be transferred from a distressed party to one who was better able to bear it. Phænippus had inherited two estates, each of which had formerly done duty to the commonwealth; since he had become possessed of them, though he had himself lived in luxury, he had contrived to shirk the taxes and official services. Public policy required, that he should be compelled to contribute, in respect of his property, to the public charges; and he should not be allowed to escape by means of such tricks as he had endeavoured to practise on the complainant. Phænippus appears to have brought counter-charges against his opponent, and (among other things) objected that he had omitted from his inventory the mines, which should have been offered with the rest of his effects for the exchange. The complainant answers, that this was in accordance with the Athenian law, as mines, being the property of the state, were not subject to property-tax, and not transferable under the exchange. In proof of this he cites the statute itself (upon which the reader will find Böckh's and Becker's observations in a note). As there was an appearance of unfairness in this regulation, and the complainant feared perhaps that a prejudice might be raised against him in the minds of the jury, he seeks to remove this by making an equitable proposal. "If" says hePhænippus will give me his land free from the pretended incumbrances, and will bring back the things which he has fraudulently removed from the farm, I will include my mine-property in the exchange." The very making of this offer seems to show the uncertainty of the Athenian law; or perhaps it implies a doubt in the speaker's mind as to his ability to prove the charges which he had made against Phænippus; and it may have been a bold stroke to drive him to a compromise.

66

The speech, though valuable for the light which it throws upon a very obscure subject, is feeble in its composition, and the best critics have refused to recognise it as one of the genuine works of Demosthenes.

BLESSINGS, men of the jury, upon all of you, and in particular upon Solon, who established the law respecting the exchange of estates. For if he had not clearly defined to us what is the first thing to be done by persons who tender the exchange, what the second, and so on, I cannot tell how far the audacity of the respondent Phænippus would have gone, when even now, notwithstanding that everything is prescribed to us by the law, he has disregarded its just enactments, and instead of giving me the inventory of his property according to law within three days after he was sworn, or, if he did not like that, giving it at least on the twenty-fifth day of the month Boedromion, which he got me to appoint and on which he promised to deliver the inventory—instead

of doing either the one or the other, he treated both me and the law with contempt, and delivered it in the second month, only two or three days before the cause was brought into court, and kept out of the way all the remainder of the time and again, instead of leaving the seals which I had put upon the buildings undisturbed, he went into the country and opened them, and carried away the barley and other things, as if the law had given him liberty to do whatever he pleases, not that which is right and just.

For my own part, men of the jury, I should have been only too glad to see myself in prosperous circumstances, as I used to be, and remaining in the body of Three-hundred : but, since I have shared the general misfortunes of all those engaged in the works, and have also incurred special losses of a ruinous nature in my own business, and now on this last occasion I have to pay to the state three talents, a talent for every share-(for I was a partner, I am sorry to say, in the confiscated mine)1-I am under the necessity of endeavouring to substitute in my place a man who is richer than myself, and indeed always was richer, and who has never served any public office or contributed anything to the property tax. I therefore entreat of you all, men of the jury, that, if I prove the respondent Phænippus to have transgressed the regulations of the law and to be a richer person than myself, you will afford me relief, and place him in my stead in the list of the Three-hundred: for it is on this account that the laws every year allow the tendering of the exchange, because it is a rare thing that any of our citizens can permanently maintain their prosperity. I will tell you all that has taken place concerning the exchange from the beginning.

On the second day of the month Metagitnion, men of the jury, the Generals held a court for proposing the exchanges to the Three-hundred. At this court I cited the respondent Phænippus according to law. Having cited him, I took with me some of my friends and relations and proceeded to Cytherus, to his farm on the borders.2 And first

1 The mine having been forfeited to the state, probably for nonpayment of rent, the speaker had to pay this money to obtain a re-grant of it.

See Böckh, on the Silver Mines of Laurium, pages 467, 479 (translation).

2 See Böckh, I. 86. Trans.