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Moreover, consider this too, whether you would suffer me in your presence to take the document and add to it. Of course you would not. Well, then, neither is it fitting to suffer him to strike out any of its contents. For who will ever be convicted of giving false testimony, if he is to depose to what he pleases, and be accountable only for what he pleases? No, the law does not thus make a distinction in these matters, and you ought not to listen to such a thing either. The straightforward and honest course is this: What stands written? To what have you deposed? Show that this is true. For you have written in your plea in answer to the complaint these words, I have given true testimony in testifying to what is contained in the deposition—not to this or that in the deposition.
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(To the clerk.) To prove that this is so, take, please, the plea itself. Read it.
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The Complaint and Counter-Plea
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Apollodorus, son of Pasio, of Acharnae, sues Stephanus, son of Menecles, of Acharnae, for false testimony; damages one talent.
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Stephanus gave false testimony against me in testifying to that which is contained in the record.
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I gave true testimony in testifying to that which is contained in the record.
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This is the plea which the defendant himself has entered. You must keep it in mind, and not regard the deceitful language which will soon be addressed to you as being more worthy of credence than the laws and what the defendant has written in his own plea.
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I learn that they are going to speak about my original suit and to denounce it as baseless and malicious. But I on my part have already mentioned to you and explained in detail the manner in which Phormio concocted the lease, in order to get into his possession the banking-stock, and I should be unable to speak of these other matters and at the same time convict these men of giving false testimony; for the amount of water allotted me is not sufficient.
