sacred utensils,1 and that he retained in his possession and refused to pay considerable sums belonging to the Goddess and the heroes and the state, I took proceedings against him in conjunction with Euctemon, thinking I had found a good opportunity at the same time to redress the grievances of the commonwealth and obtain satisfaction for my own. So should I wish now both for myself to accomplish my own objects, and for the defendant to suffer what he deserves. When the facts were beyond all dispute, the council having pronounced sentence of condemnation, the assembly having given a whole day to that single question, and besides this, two tribunals composed of a thousand and one jurors having pronounced their verdict-when there was no longer any pretext for keeping you out of the money-Timocrates the defendant treated all the proceedings with such contempt as to propose this law, by means of which he deprives the Gods of their sacred property and the state of hers, and invalidates the decisions of the council and the assembly and the court of justice, and has enabled any one that pleases to plunder the state with impunity. For all this the only remedy that we can see is, to indict the law, bring it before you, and endeavour to repeal it. I will in a few words explain the transaction to you from the beginning, that you may the more clearly see and comprehend the iniquitous character of the law itself.

Aristophon moved a decree in the assembly, that inquisitors 2 should be appointed, and that, whoever knew of any one having in his possession any sacred or public property of the state, should give information to them. After this Euctemon gave information, that Archebius and Lysithides, who had been trierarchs, had in their possession the proceeds of a cargo from Naucratis, estimated at nine talents and thirty minas. He communicated with the council; an order of council was drawn up; an assembly was thereupon held, and the people voted for a hearing of the question. Euctemon got up, and explained in the course of his speech, how the ship was taken by the trireme which carried Melanopus and Glaucetes and Androtion on their embassy to Mausolus; how the people to whom the cargo belonged presented their peti

1 See the Oration against Androtion, Vol. iii. page 160.
2 See Vol. iii. Appendix VIII. page 341.

tion, and how you rejected it on the ground that the cargo was not friendly. He then reminded you and read the laws, which declare that in such a case the property must be confiscated. You all thought that what he said was just. Androtion, Glaucetes, and Melanopus jumped up, and (pray watch if I am speaking the truth) they poured out a torrent of complaint and abuse, exonerated the trierarchs, confessed that they had the money themselves, and desired that the inquisition should proceed against them. You heard what they said, and, as soon as they had done bawling, Euctemon advised-nothing could be fairer-that you should get the money from the trierarchs, and they should have recourse to the persons who had it, and, if there was any dispute, you should direct an interpleader, and the party who lost the verdict should be deemed the state-debtor. They indict the decree; it came into court; to cut the matter short, it was considered to have been moved legally, and the verdict was in its favour. What then ought to have been done? The state should have had the money, and the party defrauding her should have been punished, and surely there was no occasion for any law. Well; up to this point, you had sustained no injury from Timocrates, the present defendant. Subsequently, however, he took everything which I have mentioned upon himself, and it will appear that you have been injured solely by him; for by lending himself to the artifices and trickeries of those other men, and making himself their tool, he took their guilt upon his own shoulders, as I will show you clearly. I must first remind you of the dates, and the occasion upon which he proposes his law; for it will appear that he has treated you with mockery and insult. It was the month of Scirophorion when those men were beaten in their indictment of Euctemon: hiring then the present defendant, and not being even in a condition to do justice to you, they put some tattling fellows in the marketplace to say, that they were ready to pay the single sum, but would not be able to pay the double. This was an impudent conspiracy, a contrivance that the present law might be passed without observation. The fact itself proves my assertion for they did not pay you at that time a drachm of

1 The owner of the goods placed a bough, as the symbol of petition, upon the altar, which stood at the entrance of the theatre.

the money, while by a single law they nullified a plurality of. existing laws, and by a law which, of all that ever were passed before you, is the most shameful and scandalous.

I have something to say about the statutes, which allow indictments of this kind, and then I will proceed to the law itself which I have indicted: when you have heard these explanations, you will be in a better position to understand the rest of the case. In our existing laws, men of Athens, is clearly and accurately defined everything which is required. to be done for laws about to be enacted. And first of all, a time is specified at which laws must be proposed; and even then it is not allowed to be done in what manner the individual proposer pleases, but he is directed first to write out his law, and put it up before the statues of the Heroes, that every man may have an opportunity of seeing it, and he is required also to propose the same law for all, and further, to repeal those laws which are inconsistent with it; and there are other directions, which there seems no necessity to advert to now. If a man violates any one of these, the lawgiver allows any other person to indict him. If Timocrates had not offended in all these particulars, if he had not violated all these conditions in introducing his law, one would have preferred a single accusation against him, whatever that might have been. As it is, however, I must take the charges one by one, and speak separately of each. I will begin with his first offence, and show how he attempted to legislate in violation of all the existing laws; after that, I will take the other parts of the case in what order you like. Here-take these statutes and read them. It will appear that he has complied with none of these requisitions. Attend, men of the jury, to the laws while they are read.

REVISION OF LAWS.

"In the first presidency, on the eleventh day, in the assembly, when the crier has pronounced the prayer, the votes of the people shall be taken upon the laws, first, those which concern the council, next, the general laws, then those which are enacted for the nine archons, afterwards those relating to the other magistrates. The first question shall be, Who are content with the existing laws concerning the council? the next, Who are not content? and so on for the

general laws. And the votes upon the revision of laws shall be taken according to the established legal practice. If any of the existing laws be condemned, the presidents, in whose term of office the condemnation has taken place, shall appoint the last of the three assemblies for the consideration of them; and the committee of council, who shall be in office on that assembly-day, are required, immediately after the sacrifice, to put the question concerning the law-revisors, in what manner they shall hold their session, and how their pay is to be provided and the law-revisors shall be chosen from those who have sworn the Heliastic oath. And if the presidents shall not appoint the assembly, or if the committee of council shall not put the question according as the statute prescribes, every one of the presidents shall forfeit a thousand drachms to Minerva, and every one of the committee shall forfeit forty drachms to Minerva; and an information shall lie against them to the judges, in like manner as when a man holds an office being indebted to the state, and the judges shall bring the parties informed against into court according to law, or they shall lose their promotion to the Areopagus, for putting down the amendment of the laws. Before the assembly any Athenian that pleases shall write out the laws which he proposes, and expose them before the statues of the heroes, so that, according to the number of the proposed laws, the people may determine what time shall be allowed for the law-revisors: and whosoever proposes a new law shall write it on a white board and expose it before the statues of the heroes every day until the assembly is held. And the people shall, on the eleventh day of the month Hecatombæon, elect five men from the whole body of Athenian citizens, to defend the laws proposed to be repealed before the law-revisors."

All these laws have been established for a long period, men of the jury, and have often proved themselves to be of practical advantage, and no man ever questioned their wisdom; at which I am not surprised; for they command nothing which is cruel or oppressive or tyrannical, but, on the contrary, prescribe everything to be done in a fair and constitutional manner. In the first place, they give you the power of deciding whether a new law ought to be introduced, or whether the established laws are, in your opinion, suffi

In

cient. Secondly, if you vote for the introduction of a law, they do not order it to be passed immediately, but appoint the third assembly; and not even in this have they given permission to pass the law, but only to consider on what terms you will appoint the session of the law-revisors. that interval they require those who wish to introduce the laws to expose them before the statues of the heroes, so that whoever pleases may examine them, and, if he discover anything inexpedient for you, may inform you of it, and oppose it at his leisure. Not one of all these conditions has the defendant Timocrates performed: he neither exposed the law to view, nor gave those that liked the opportunity to read and oppose it, nor waited for any of the periods prescribed in the laws; but when the assembly, in which you voted upon the laws, was the eleventh of Hecatombæon, he brought in his law upon the twelfth, the very next day, (although it was the festival of Saturn, and the council therefore was adjourned,) having, in conjunction with persons who mean no good to you, contrived that law-revisors should sit under a decree, upon a pretence of the Panathenæa. I will read you the decree itself which was passed, to show you that they did all these things by arrangement, and none of them by chance. Take you the decree, and read it to them.

THE DECREE.

"In the first presidency, to wit, that of the Pandionian tribe, on the eleventh day thereof, Epicrates moved: In order that the sacrifices may be offered, that the ways and means may be sufficient, and whatever is wanting for the Panathenæa may be supplied, let the presidents of the Pandionian tribe impanel law-revisors to-morrow, and let the law-revisors be a thousand and one in number, selected from those who have taken the oath, and let the council be associated with them in the revision."

Observe, in the reading of the decree,1 how artfully the framer of it, under pretext of financial arrangements and the wants of the festival, without adverting to the time prescribed by law, puts in a clause for proceeding with the revision

I adhere to the reading of Bekker, notwithstanding that it is disapproved by so many commentators. It is a loose way of saying, “Observe how artfully it appears from the decree that," &c.