9
(To the clerk.) Read the depositions, first those concerning the mine, and then the others as well.
9
The Depositions
10
The wrongs, therefore, which Phaenippus began to do to me beginning with the very first day after the tendering of the exchanges, you have heard, men of Athens, both from myself and from the witnesses; but the things which he did after this have been offences, not against me only, but also against the laws, to the defence of which you are all bound to rally.
11
For although he had sworn on the eleventh of the month Boedromion to give me a true and just inventory of his property, and the law expressly declares that the inventory shall be given within three days after one takes the oath, he came up to me in front of the courtrooms with Polyeuctus of CrioaCrioa was a deme of the tribe Antiochis. and some others, and begged me, first to have a conference with him regarding a settlement, assuring me that he would do everything that was right; and, secondly, to put off the declaration regarding the property for a few days only (for he said he understood my position).
12
I, on my part, thinking it was becoming to a good citizen who wished to avoid quarrels not to rush headlong into court, was persuaded (for why should I multiply words?) to consent that the conference regarding a settlement should take place on the twenty-third of the month Boedromion, and the declaration regarding the property on the twenty-fifth.Literally the 8th and the 6th of the last group of ten days in the month, which was counted backward. Yet, although he had obtained both his requests from me, Phaenippus did not present himself on either of these days; instead, he now appears before you as one who has transgressed two laws instead of one;—first, that which declares that the inventory shall be presented within three days after that on which one takes the oath, and, secondly, that which declares that mutual covenants, agreed upon in the presence of witnesses, shall be binding.
