163
Fellow citizens, I hired Timarchus to serve me as a prostitute according to the contract that is deposited with Demosthenes—there is no reason why that statement might not be made!—but he fails to carry out his engagement with me. And now, of course, he proceeds to describe this engagement to the jury, telling what it is that a man of that sort is expected to do. Thereupon will not the man be stoned who has hired an Athenian contrary to the laws, and will he not leave the court-room not only sentenced to pay his fine,In certain classes of private suits, if the plaintiff failed to receive one-fifth of the votes of the jury, he had to pay to the defendant one-sixth of the sum for which he had sued (one obol in the drachma (= six obols), hence the name ἐπωβελία). but also convicted of wanton outrage?
164
But suppose it is not this man, but the one who was hired, that is bringing suit. Now let him come forward and speak—or else let the wise Batalus speak in his stead, that we may know what he will find to say! Gentlemen of the jury, so-and-so—it does not matter who—hired me to be his prostitute for money, and I have done, and still continue to do, according to the terms of the contract, all that a prostitute is under obligation to do; he, however, fails to fulfil the agreement. Will he not immediately have to face a loud protest from the jurors? For who will not say, And then do you thrust yourself into the market-place, do you put on a garland,See the note on Aeschin. 1.19. do you attempt to do anything else that the rest of us do? His contract, you see, is of no use to him.
