Demosthenes, Against Conon, Augustus Taber Murray (Translator), 1

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[1] With gross outrage I have met, men of the jury, at the hands of the defendant, Conon, and have suffered such bodily injury that for a very long time neither my relatives nor any of the attending physicians thought that I should survive. Contrary to expectation, however, I did recover and regain my strength, and I then brought against him this action for the assault. All my friends and relatives, whose advice I asked, declared that for what he had done the defendant was liable to summary seizure as a highwayman, or to public indictments for criminal outrage¹; but they urged and advised me not to take upon myself matters which I should not be able to carry, or to appear to be bringing suit for the maltreatment I had received in a manner too ambitious for one so young. I took this course, therefore, and, in deference to their advice, have instituted a private suit, although I should have been very glad, men of Athens , to prosecute the defendant on a capital charge.

Against Conon. Demosthenes. Augustus Taber Murray (Translator). London. 1939.

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Current edition Perseus

Ariston Against Conon, an Action for Assault (English) (Demosthenes, Vol. IV: Private Orations, Vol 3. Murray, A. T., translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1939 (printing).)

Editions (1)

κατὰ Κόνωνος αἰκείας Perseus (Demosthenes. Orationes, Vol. III. Rennie, W., editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1931.) — 1 focus

[1] ὑβρισθείς, 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. 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.

Notes on the current edition

Against Conon

1. As guilty of highway robbery the defendant had made himself liable to summary arrest ( ἀπαγωγή), and the gravity of his assault would have justified a public indictment for criminal outrage ( ὕβρεως γραφή), for either of which crimes he would, if convicted, have suffered a heavy penalty. The private suit for assault and battery ( αἰκείας δίκη) entailed merely a fine to be paid to the plaintiff.

Demosthenes Against Conon 1

Augustus Taber Murray (Translator)

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