Thesauros Literature Oratory Περὶ τοῦ Ἡρῷδου φόνου

Περὶ τοῦ Ἡρῷδου φόνου

Περὶ τοῦ Ἡρῷδου φόνου Antiphon ca. 480-411 B.C
33 Now as long as he believed that he had something to gain by falsely incriminating me, he firmly adhered to that course; but on finding that he was doomed, he at once reverted to the truth and admitted that it was our friends here who had induced him to lie about me. However, neither his persevering attempts at falsehood nor his subsequent confession of the truth helped him.
34 They took him, took the man upon whose disclosures they are resting their case against me, and put him to death,It should be noted that the witness was a slave who had been purchased by the prosecution (cf. previous note and Antiph. 5.47, init.). a thing which no one else would have dreamed of doing. As a rule, informers are rewarded with money, if they are free, and with their liberty, if they are slaves. The prosecution paid for their information with death, and that in spite of a protest from my friends that they should postpone the execution until my return.
35 Clearly, it was not his person, but his evidence, which they required; had the man remained alive, he would have been tortured by me in the same way, and the prosecution would be confronted with their plot: but once he was dead, not only did the loss of his person mean that I was deprived of my opportunity of establishing the truth, but his false statements are assumed to be true and are proving my undoing. Call me witnesses to confirm these facts.
36 Witnesses

nav.navigate

nav.identity

common.settings

common.language
TR EN
common.theme