Humanitext Reader

Demosthenes · Against Conon §1-6

Origin of the Lawsuit and Harassment at the Garrison

Passage 1 of 6 · Greek

Summary

Ariston explains to the jury the assault he suffered from Conon and the process of bringing the lawsuit. He begins by relating the persistent harassment and night attack by Conon's sons during their garrison duty.

§1ὑβρισθείς, ὦ ἄνδρες δικασταί, καὶ παθὼν ὑπὸ Κόνωνος τουτουὶ τοιαῦτα, ὥστε πολὺν χρόνον πάνυ μήτε τοὺς οἰκείους μήτε τῶν ἰατρῶν μηδένα προσδοκᾶν περιφεύξεσθαί με, ὑγιάνας καὶ σωθεὶς ἀπροσδοκήτως ἔλαχον αὐτῷ τὴν δίκην τῆς αἰκείας ταυτηνί.
Having been outraged, gentlemen of the jury, and having suffered such treatment at the hands of Conon here, that for a very long time neither my relatives nor any of the doctors expected that I would survive, having recovered and been saved unexpectedly, I brought against him this action for assault.
πάντων δὲ τῶν φίλων καὶ τῶν οἰκείων, οἷς συνεβουλευόμην, ἔνοχον μὲν φασκόντων αὐτὸν ἐκ τῶν πεπραγμένων εἶναι καὶ τῇ τῶν λωποδυτῶν ἀπαγωγῇ καὶ ταῖς τῆς ὕβρεως γραφαῖς, συμβουλευόντων δέ μοι καὶ παραινούντων μὴ μείζω πράγματʼ ἢ δυνήσομαι φέρειν ἐπάγεσθαι, μηδʼ ὑπὲρ τὴν ἡλικίαν περὶ ὧν ἐπεπόνθειν ἐγκαλοῦντα φαίνεσθαι, οὕτως ἐποίησα καὶ διʼ ἐκείνους ἰδίαν ἔλαχον δίκην, ἥδιστʼ ἄν, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι, θανάτου κρίνας τουτονί.
Though all my friends and relatives, with whom I consulted, declared that from what had been done he was liable both to summary arrest as a highwayman and to public indictments for outrage, yet advised and urged me not to bring upon myself a burden greater than I should be able to bear, nor to appear, at my age, to be prosecuting him for what I had suffered; I therefore acted accordingly, and, because of them, brought a private suit, though I would most gladly, gentlemen of Athens, have prosecuted him on a capital charge.
§2καὶ τούτου συγγνώμην ἕξετε, εὖ οἶδʼ ὅτι, πάντες, ἐπειδὰν ἃ πέπονθʼ ἀκούσητε· δεινῆς γὰρ οὔσης τῆς τότε συμβάσης ὕβρεως οὐκ ἐλάττων ἡ μετὰ ταῦτʼ ἀσέλγειʼ ἐστὶ τουτουί.
And for this, I know well, you will all grant me indulgence, when you have heard what I have suffered; for though the outrage which then took place was terrible, the subsequent insolence of this man is no less.
ἀξιῶ δὴ καὶ δέομαι πάντων ὁμοίως ὑμῶν πρῶτον μὲν εὐνοϊκῶς ἀκοῦσαί μου περὶ ὧν πέπονθα λέγοντος, εἶτα, ἐὰν ἠδικῆσθαι καὶ παρανενομῆσθαι δοκῶ, βοηθῆσαί μοι τὰ δίκαια.
I therefore request and entreat you all alike, first to listen to me with goodwill as I speak of what I have suffered, and then, if you think I have been wronged and treated unlawfully, to give me the justice that is my due.
ἐξ ἀρχῆς δʼ ὡς ἕκαστα πέπρακται διηγήσομαι πρὸς ὑμᾶς, ὡς ἂν οἷός τʼ ὦ διὰ βραχυτάτων.
I shall relate to you from the beginning how each thing was done, as briefly as I can.
§3ἐξῆλθον ἔτος τουτὶ τρίτον εἰς Πάνακτον φρουρᾶς ἡμῖν προγραφείσης.
Three years ago, I went out to Panactum, a garrison duty having been ordered for us.
ἐσκήνωσαν οὖν οἱ υἱεῖς οἱ Κόνωνος τουτουὶ ἐγγὺς ἡμῶν, ὡς οὐκ ἂν ἐβουλόμην· ἡ γὰρ ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἔχθρα καὶ τὰ προσκρούματʼ ἐκεῖθεν ἡμῖν συνέβη· ἐξ ὧν δέ, ἀκούσεσθε.
Now the sons of Conon here pitched their tent near us, as I would not have wished; for our original enmity and clashes arose from that; and from what causes, you shall hear.
ἔπινον ἑκάστοθʼ οὗτοι τὴν ἡμέραν, ἐπειδὴ τάχιστʼ ἀριστήσαιεν, ὅλην, καὶ τοῦθʼ, ἕως περ ἦμεν ἐν τῇ φρουρᾷ, διετέλουν ποιοῦντες.
These men used to drink every day, as soon as they had finished breakfast, for the whole day, and this they continued doing as long as we were on garrison duty.
ἡμεῖς δʼ ὥσπερ ἐνθάδʼ εἰώθειμεν, οὕτω διήγομεν καὶ ἔξω.
But we lived out there just as we were accustomed to do here.
§4ἣν οὖν δειπνοποιεῖσθαι τοῖς ἄλλοις ὥραν συμβαίνοι, ταύτην ἂν ἤδη ἐπαρῴνουν οὗτοι, τὰ μὲν πόλλʼ εἰς τοὺς παῖδας ἡμῶν τοὺς ἀκολούθους, τελευτῶντες δὲ καὶ εἰς ἡμᾶς αὐτούς.
Whenever the hour for dinner arrived for the others, these men would already be playing drunken pranks, for the most part against our servants who attended us, and finally even against ourselves.
φήσαντες γὰρ καπνίζειν αὑτοὺς ὀψοποιουμένους τοὺς παῖδας ἢ κακῶς λέγειν, ὅ τι τύχοιεν, ἔτυπτον καὶ τὰς ἀμίδας κατεσκεδάννυον καὶ προσεούρουν, καὶ ἀσελγείας καὶ ὕβρεως οὐδʼ ὁτιοῦν ἀπέλειπον.
For claiming that the servants smoked them while cooking, or spoke ill of them, or whatever occurred to them, they would beat them, empty chamber-pots over them, and urinate on them, omitting no form of insolence or outrage.
ὁρῶντες δʼ ἡμεῖς ταῦτα καὶ λυπούμενοι τὸ μὲν πρῶτον ἀπεπεμψάμεθα, ὡς δʼ ἐχλεύαζον ἡμᾶς καὶ οὐκ ἐπαύοντο, τῷ στρατηγῷ τὸ πρᾶγμʼ εἴπομεν κοινῇ πάντες οἱ σύσσιτοι προσελθόντες, οὐκ ἐγὼ τῶν ἄλλων ἔξω.
Seeing these things and being annoyed, we at first turned them away; but when they mocked us and would not stop, we told the general of the matter, all of us who shared the mess going to him together, not I apart from the others.
§5λοιδορηθέντος δʼ αὐτοῖς ἐκείνου καὶ κακίσαντος αὐτοὺς οὐ μόνον περὶ ὧν εἰς ἡμᾶς ἠσέλγαινον, ἀλλὰ καὶ περὶ ὧν ὅλως ἐποίουν ἐν τῷ στρατοπέδῳ, τοσούτου ἐδέησαν παύσασθαι ἢ αἰσχυνθῆναι, ὥστʼ ἐπειδὴ θᾶττον συνεσκότασεν, εὐθὺς ὡς ἡμᾶς εἰσεπήδησαν ταύτῃ τῇ ἑσπέρᾳ, καὶ τὸ μὲν πρῶτον κακῶς ἔλεγον, τελευτῶντες δὲ καὶ πληγὰς ἐνέτειναν ἐμοί, καὶ τοσαύτην κραυγὴν καὶ θόρυβον περὶ τὴν σκηνὴν ἐποίησαν ὥστε καὶ τὸν στρατηγὸν καὶ τοὺς ταξιάρχους ἐλθεῖν καὶ τῶν ἄλλων στρατιωτῶν τινάς, οἵπερ ἐκώλυσαν μηδὲν ἡμᾶς ἀνήκεστον παθεῖν μηδʼ αὐτοὺς ποιῆσαι παροινουμένους ὑπὸ τουτωνί.
When that officer had rebuked them and severely censured them, not only for their insolent behavior toward us, but also for their conduct in the camp generally, they were so far from stopping or feeling ashamed, that as soon as it grew dark, they burst in upon us that very evening; and at first they abused us verbally, but finally they even inflicted blows upon me, and made such a clamor and uproar about our tent that the general, the taxiarchs, and some of the other soldiers came, who prevented us from suffering any fatal harm and from doing any ourselves, when we were being thus outraged by these men.
§6τοῦ δὲ πράγματος εἰς τοῦτο προελθόντος, ὡς δεῦρʼ ἐπανήλθομεν, ἦν ἡμῖν, οἷον εἰκός, ἐκ τούτων ὀργὴ καὶ ἔχθρα πρὸς ἀλλήλους.
When the matter had gone to this length, after we returned here, there was, as might be expected, anger and mutual hostility between us as a result of these things.
μὰ τοὺς θεοὺς οὐ μὴν ἔγωγʼ ᾠόμην δεῖν οὔτε δίκην λαχεῖν αὐτοῖς οὔτε λόγον ποιεῖσθαι τῶν συμβάντων οὐδένα, ἀλλʼ ἐκεῖνʼ ἁπλῶς ἐγνώκειν τὸ λοιπὸν εὐλαβεῖσθαι καὶ φυλάττεσθαι μὴ πλησιάζειν τοῖς τοιούτοις.
By the gods, however, I did not think it necessary either to bring a suit against them or to make any account of what had happened, but had simply resolved for the future to be cautious and to take care not to come near such people.
πρῶτον μὲν οὖν τούτων ὧν εἴρηκα βούλομαι τὰς μαρτυρίας παρασχόμενος, μετὰ ταῦθʼ οἷʼ ὑπʼ αὐτοῦ τούτου πέπονθʼ ἐπιδεῖξαι, ἵνʼ εἰδῆθʼ ὅτι ᾧ προσῆκεν τοῖς τὸ πρῶτον ἁμαρτηθεῖσιν ἐπιτιμᾶν, οὗτος αὐτὸς πρότερος πολλῷ δεινότερʼ εἴργασται.
First, then, I wish to produce the testimonies for what I have said, and after that to show what I have suffered at the hands of this man himself, so that you may know that he, who ought to have rebuked those who committed the first offenses, has himself been the first to do things far more terrible.
ΜΑΡΤΥΡΙΑΙ.
TESTIMONIES.

Notes

  1. §1ὥστε πολὺν χρόνον πάνυ μήτε τοὺς οἰκείους μήτε τῶν ἰατρῶν μηδένα προσδοκᾶν περιφεύξεσθαί με — A double accusative and infinitive (A.C.I.) structure nested within the result clause introduced by the conjunction ὥστε. The subject of the first infinitive προσδοκᾶν is the accusative phrase μήτε τοὺς οἰκείους μήτε ... μηδένα, and the subject of its complementary future infinitive περιφεύξεσθαι ('to survive') is the accusative pronoun με at the end.
  2. §1ἔνοχον μὲν φασκόντων αὐτὸν ἐκ τῶν πεπραγμένων εἶναι καὶ τῇ τῶν λωποδυτῶν ἀπαγωγῇ καὶ ταῖς τῆς ὕβρεως γραφαῖς — The participle φασκόντων is part of a genitive absolute agreeing with πάντων τῶν φίλων καὶ τῶν οἰκείων. The adjective ἔνοχον ('liable to', 'subject to') governs the datives τῇ ... ἀπαγωγῇ and ταῖς ... γραφαῖς, indicating that Conon was liable both to summary arrest (ἀπαγωγή) as a clothes-stealer and to public indictments (γραφαί) for assault.
  3. §3ἔτος τουτὶ τρίτον — An accusative of duration or time when, with the deictic pronoun τουτί adding immediacy. Literally 'this third year', but according to the inclusive method of reckoning used in Athens (which includes the current year), it means 'two years ago'.
  4. §4ἣν οὖν δειπνοποιεῖσθαι τοῖς ἄλλοις ὥραν συμβαίνοι, ταύτην ἂν ἤδη ἐπαρῴνουν οὗτοι — A construction expressing past repeated action. The combination of the optative συμβαίνοι in the relative clause and the imperfect with ἄν in the main clause (ἂν ... ἐπαρῴνουν) expresses 'whenever the hour happened, they would...'. The antecedent ὥραν is attracted into the relative clause (ἣν ... ὥραν) and resumed by the demonstrative pronoun ταύτην in the main clause.
  5. §5τοσούτου ἐδέησαν παύσασθαι ἢ αἰσχυνθῆναι — An idiomatic expression similar to ὀλίγου δέω but expressing a great distance from an action. Literally, 'they wanted by so much to stop or feel ashamed', meaning 'they were so far from stopping or feeling ashamed that...'. It correlates with the following result clause introduced by ὥστε.
  6. §5οἵπερ ἐκώλυσαν μηδὲν ἡμᾶς ἀνήκεστον παθεῖν μηδʼ αὐτοὺς ποιῆσαι — A characteristic Classical Greek idiom where verbs of hindering or preventing (here ἐκώλυσαν) are followed by an infinitive with a redundant negative (μηδέν / μηδέ). In translation into modern languages, this redundant negative must not be translated as a double negation but rather as a simple affirmative action prevented ('prevented us from suffering... or doing...').

Cite this passage

Demosthenes, Against Conon §1-6. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0014.tlg054.humanitext-grc2:1-6

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