16
for instance, a man may not be put to torture in your presence—for this it is necessary that there be a challenge; again, if anything has been transacted and has taken place somewhere out of the country, it is necessary that for this too there should be a challenge to go by sea or land to the place where the thing was done; and so for other things of that sort. But in cases where it is possible to produce the things themselves before your eyes, what could be simpler than to produce them publicly?
17
Well, my father died at Athens, the arbitration took place in the Painted Stoa,The Painted Stoa was the largest and finest of the porticoes surrounding the agora. It got its name from the famous paintings with which its walls were adorned. and these men have deposed that Amphias produced the document before the arbitrator. Then, if it was genuine, the document ought to have been put into the box,See Aristot. Ath. Pol. 53.2 and the one producing it should have so testified, in order that the jurymen might have reached a decision in accordance with the truth and after an inspection of the seals; and I, on my part, if anyone was wronging me, might have proceeded against him.
18
But, as it is, no one person has taken the whole matter upon himself or given straightforward testimony, as one would do in testifying to the truth, but each has deposed to a part of the story, fancying that he is very clever and that for this reason he will escape punishment,—one of them deposing that he holds a document on which is written the will of Pasio; another that, being sent by the former person, he produced this document, but had no knowledge as to whether it was genuine or spurious.
