18
They have maliciously asserted that my father spoke with a foreign accent. But that he was taken prisoner by the enemy in the course of the Decelean warThe latter period of the Peloponnesian war, 413-404 B.C., is often called the Decelean war, because the Lacedaemonians, who had again invaded Attica, occupied the town of Decelea, not far from Athens, and maintained a garrison there. and was sold into slavery and taken to Leucas, and that he there fell in with Cleander,The modern Leukas, or Santa Maura, off the west coast of Acarnania. the actor, and was brought back here to his kinsfolk after a long lapse of time—all this they have omitted to state; but just as though it were right that I should be brought to ruin on account of his misfortunes, they have made his foreign accent the basis of a charge against him.
19
On my part, however, I think that these very facts will more than anything else help me to demonstrate that I am an Athenian.
19
In the first place, to prove that my father was taken prisoner and was ransomed, I will bring witnesses before you; then, that when he reached home he received from his uncles his share of the property; and furthermore, that neither among the members of the deme nor among those of the clan nor anywhere else did anyone ever accuse him (despite his foreign accent) with being a foreigner.
19
(To the clerk.) Please take the depositions.
19
The Depositions
