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To meet the impudence of this assertion of his, of the defense which he has concocted, and of the witnesses whom he has suborned to support it, I tendered him a precise and reasonable challenge, by means of which you would have been enabled to know the whole truth: I proposed that he should deliver up for the torture the women-servants, Thratta and Coccalinê, who remained loyally with Neaera when she came to Stephanus from Megara, and those whom she purchased subsequently, while living with him, Xennis and Drosis;
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for these women know perfectly well that Proxenus, who died, Ariston, who is still living, and Antidorides the runner, and Phano, formerly called Strybel, who married Theogenes, the king, are children of Neaera. And if it should appear from the torture that this man Stephanus had married an Athenian wife and that these children were borne to him, not by Neaera, but by another woman who was an Athenian, I offered to withdraw from the case and to prevent this indictment from coming into court.
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For this is what living with a woman as one’s wife means—to have children by her and to introduce the sons to the members of the clan and of the deme, and to betroth the daughters to husbands as one’s own. Mistresses we keep for the sake of pleasure, concubines for the daily care of our persons, but wives to bear us legitimate children and to be faithful guardians of our households. If, therefore, Stephanus had previously married an Athenian woman, and these children are hers and not Neaera’s, he could have shown it by the most certain evidence, by delivering up these women-servants for the torture.
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To prove that I so challenged him, the clerk shall read to you the deposition regarding these matters and the challenge.
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(To the clerk.) Read the deposition and then the challenge.
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The Deposition
