Against Phaenippus

​Then I sealed up the buildings, and bid him to go to my property. After this, I asked where the thrashed barley was; for by the gods and goddesses, gentlemen of the jury, there were two thrashing-floors there, each of nearly a plethron in size. And he answered me that some of the barley had been sold, and the rest was stored inside.

​Finally, not to make a long story, having stationed some men inside to keep guard, and by Zeus, having forbidden and prevented the donkey-drivers from carrying away the wood from the estate (for in addition to the rest of Phaenippus’s property, gentlemen of the jury, this also is a source of great income for him: six donkeys carry wood throughout the year, and he gets more than twelve drachmae a day)—having forbidden them, as I say, to touch the wood, and having summoned Phaenippus to present himself at the temples in accordance with the law, I departed and went back to the city.

​First of all, then, I will present to you the testimonies regarding these statements, and then you shall hear all the truth about the rest of the matters. For you will find, gentlemen of the jury, that this Phaenippus here began from the very first day to do nothing that is just. I sealed up the buildings, the law having given me the right; he opened them. And he admits removing the seal, but does not admit opening the door, as if people remove seals for any other purpose than to open the doors.

​Next, I forbade them to carry away the wood; he carried it away every single day, except on the day I forbade it. Not a single debt was owed upon the estate; now he declares many. Simply put, he does whatever he pleases, not what the laws command. Read the testimonies, first those concerning the mine, and then the others. TESTIMONIES ​Now, as to how Phaenippus began to wrong me immediately on the first day after the exchanges, you have heard, men of Athens, both from me and from the witnesses. But the things which have happened after that are no longer transgressions against me alone, but also against the laws, on behalf of which you all must be zealous.

​For although he had sworn on the eleventh day of the month of Boedromion to give a true and just inventory of his property, and although the law explicitly says to deliver the inventory within three days from the day on which one takes the oath, he came to me in front of the courts, accompanied by Polyeuctus of Crioa and some others, and begged me, first, to meet with him for a settlement—for he said he would do everything that was just by me; and secondly, to postpone the delivery of the inventory of his property for a few days, for he was not ignorant, he said, of my circumstances.

​Believing it to be the part of a moderate and peaceable citizen not to run headlong into court at once, I consented (for why make a long story of it?) to agree to hold the meeting for the settlement on the eighth day from the end of the month of Boedromion, and to have the delivery of the inventory of his property on the sixth day from the end of the month. But having obtained both of these concessions from me, Phaenippus appeared on neither of those days. Instead, he comes before you having violated not one but two laws: first, the one commanding to declare one’s property within three days after taking the oath, and second, the one commanding that mutual agreements which are made in the presence of witnesses shall be binding.