24
And then how absurd when he says that I plotted to disenfranchise him and bring him to utter ruin, to have written in the charge that I ordered a slave to do this,—a thing which even a citizen could not do to another citizen.That is, disenfranchisement could come only by act of the state itself. What, then, is the meaning of this? I suppose that, being unable to refer to me the doing of any of these acts, but wishing to go on with his malicious suit, he wrote in the complaint that I had given the order. There was no sense in his charge, if he had not done this.
24
Read what follows.
24
The Complaint
25
And after I had become a debtor to the state, having stationed his slave Antigenes in my mining property at Thrasyllus,A site in Maroneia, so called from a monument of Thrasyllus which stood there. in full control of my works, although I forbade him
25
Stop reading. In all this he will again be convicted of falsehood by the facts themselves; for he has written in the complaint that I stationed the slave and that he forbade me. But this was impossible in the case of one who was not in the country. Neither did I station anyone, seeing that I was in Pontus, nor did he forbid a man who was not in Athens. How could he?
26
What was it, then, that forced him to make this statement? I fancy that Evergus, at the time he made the mistakesA euphemism for the violence and lawlessness with which Evergus had been charged by Pantaenetus. for which he has paid the penalty, being on friendly terms with me and well known, took the slave from my house and stationed him at his own works to keep guard. If, then, he had written the truth, it would have been ridiculous. For, if Evergus stationed the slave there, wherein do I wrong you? It was to avoid this absurdity that he was compelled to write as he did, that his charge might be directed against me.
26
Read what follows.
26
The Complaint
