Lucian of Samosata, Calumniae non temere credundum, Austin Morris Harmon (Translator), 8

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[8] Furthermore, that such a man is unjust, lawless, impious and harmful to his associates is easy to see. Who will not admit that fairness in everything and unselfishness are due to justice, unfairness and: selfishness to injustice? But when a man plies slander in secret against people who are absent, is he not selfish, inasmuch as he completely appropriates his hearer by getting his ear first, stopping it up and making it altogether impervious to the defence because it has been previously filled with slander? Such conduct is indeed the height of injustice, and the best of the lawgivers, Solon and Draco, for example, would say so, too; for they put the jurors on oath to hear both sides alike and to divide their goodwill equally between the litigants until such time as the plea of the defendant, after comparison with the other, shall disclose itself to be better or worse. To pass judgment betore weighing the defence against the complaint would, they thought, be altogether impious and irreligious. In truth, we may say that the very gods would be angry if we should permit the plaintiff to say his say unhampered, but should stop our ears to the defendant or silence him,¹ and then condemn him, conquered by the'first plea. It may be said, then, that slander does not accord with what is just and legal, and what the jurors swear to do. But. if anybody thinks that the lawgivers, who regommend that verdicts be so just and impartial, are not good authority, I shall cite the best of poets in support of my contention. He makes a very admirable pronouncement — indeed, lays down a law—on this point, saying: ²

Nor give your verdict ere both sides you hear.

He knew, I suppose, like everyone else, that though there are many unjust things in the world, nothing worse or more unjust can be found than for men to have been condemned untried and unheard. But this is just what the slanderer tries his best to accomplish, exposing the slandered person untried to the anger of the hearer and precluding defence by the secrecy of his accusation.

Calumniae non temere credundum. Lucian of Samosata. Austin Morris Harmon (Translator). United States. Perseus 5.0.

Funding provided by National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

Slander: on not Being Quick to Put Faith in it (English) (Lucian, Vol. 1. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1913.)

Editions (1)

Περὶ τοῦ μὴ ῥᾳδίως πιστεύειν Διαβολῇ Perseus (Lucian, Vol. 1. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1913.) — 8 focus

[8] ἔπειτα δὲ ὡς ἄδικος ὁ τοιοῦτος καὶ παράνομός ἐστι καὶ ἀσεβὴς καὶ τοῖς χρωμένοις ἐπιζήμιος, ῥᾴδιον καταμαθεῖν. τίς γὰρ οὐκ ἂν ὁμολογήσειε τὴν μὲν ἰσότητα ἐν ἅπαντι καὶ τὸ μηδὲν πλέον δικαιοσύνης ἔργα εἶναι, τὸ δὲ ἄνισόν τε καὶ πλεονεκτικὸν ἀδικίας; ὁ δὲ τῇ διαβολῇ κατὰ τῶν ἀπόντων λάθρᾳ χρώμενος πῶς οὐ πλεονέκτης ἐστὶν ὅλον τὸν ἀκροατὴν σφετεριζόμενος καὶ προκαταλαμβάνων αὐτοῦ τὰ ὦτα καὶ ἀποφράττων καὶ τῷ δευτέρῳ λόγῳ παντελῶς ἄβατα κατασκευάζων αὐτὰ ὑπὸ τῆς διαβολῆς προεμπεπλησμένα; ἐσχάτης ἀδικίας τὸ τοιοῦτον, ὡς φαῖεν ἂν καὶ οἱ ἄριστοι τῶν νομοθετῶν, οἷον ὁ Σόλων καὶ ὁ Δράκων, ἔνορκον ποιησάμενοι τοῖς δικασταῖς τὸ ὁμοίως ἀμφοῖν ἀκροᾶσθαι καὶ τὸ τὴν εὔνοιαν ἴσην τοῖς κρινομένοις ἀπονέμειν, ἄχρι ἂν ὁ τοῦ δευτέρου λόγος παρατεθεὶς θατέρου χείρων ἢ ἀμείνων φανῇ· πρὶν δέ γε ἀντεξετάσαι τὴν ἀπολογίαν τῇ κατηγορίᾳ, παντελῶς ἀσεβῆ καὶ ἀνόσιον ἡγήσαντο ἔσεσθαι τὴν κρίσιν. καὶ γὰρ ἂν καὶ αὐτοὺς ἀγανακτῆσαι τοὺς θεοὺς εἴποιμεν, εἰ τῷ κατηγόρῳ μετʼ ἀδείας ἃ θέλει λέγειν ἐπιτρέποιμεν, ἀποφράξαντες δὲ τῷ κατηγορουμένῳ τὰ ὦτα ἢ τῷ στόματι σιωπῶντος¹ καταψηφιζοίμεθα τῷ προτέρῳ λόγῳ κεχειρωμένοι, ὥστε οὐ κατὰ τὸ δίκαιον καὶ τὸ νόμιμον καὶ τὸν ὅρκον τὸν δικαστικὸν φαίη τις ἂν γίγνεσθαι τὰς διαβολάς. εἰ δέ τῳ μὴ ἀξιόπιστοι δοκοῦσιν οἱ νομοθέται παραινοῦντες οὕτω δικαίας καὶ ἀμερεῖς ποιεῖσθαι τὰς κρίσεις, ποιητήν μοι δοκῶ τὸν ἄριστον ἐπάγειν τῷ λόγῳ εὖ μάλα περὶ τούτων ἀποφηνάμενον, μᾶλλον δὲ νομοθετήσαντα. φησὶ δέ,

μήτε δίκην δικάσῃς, πρὶν ἄμφω μῦθον ἀκούσῃς.

ἠπίστατο γάρ, οἶμαι, καὶ οὗτος ὡς πολλῶν ὄντων ἐν τῷ βίῳ ἀδικημάτων οὐδὲν ἄν τις εὕροι χεῖρον οὐδὲ ἀδικώτερον ἢ ἀκρίτους τινὰς καὶ ἀμοίρους λόγων καταδεδικάσθαι· ὅπερ ἐξ ἅπαντος ὁ διαβάλλων ἐπιχειρεῖ ποιεῖν ἄκριτον ὑπάγων τὸν διαβαλλόμενον τῇ τοῦ ἀκούοντος ὀργῇ καὶ τὴν ἀπολογίαν τῷ λαθραίῳ τῆς κατηγορίας παραιρούμενος.

Translations (1)

Slander, a Warning Perseus (The Works of Lucian of Samosata, Vol. 4. Fowler, Henry Watson and Fowler, Francis George, translators. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905.) — 8 focus

[8] Secondly, it is easy to realize that such a person offends against justice, law, and piety, and is a pest to all who associate with him. Equality in everything, and contentment with your proper share, are the essentials of justice; inequality and overreaching, of injustice; that every one will admit. It is not less clear that the man who secretly slanders the absent is guilty of over-reaching; he is insisting on entire possession of his hearer, appropriating and enclosing his ears, guarding them against impartiality by blocking them with prejudice. Such procedure is unjust to the last degree; we have the testimony of the best law-givers for that; Solon and Draco made every. juror swear that he would hear indifferently, and view both parties with equal benevolence, till the defence should have been compared with the prosecution and proved better or worse than it. Before such balancing of the speeches, they considered that the forming of a conclusion must be impious and unholy. We may indeed literally suppose Heaven to be offended, if we license the accuser to say what he will, and then; closing our own ears or the defendant’s mouth, allow our judgement to be dictated by the first speech. No one can say, then, that the uttering of slander is reconcilable with the’ requirements of justice, of law, or of the juror’s oath. If it is objected that the lawgivers are no sufficient authority for such extreme justice and impartiality, I fall back on the prince of poets, who has expressed a sound opinion, or let me say, laid down a sound - law on the subject:

Nor give thy judgement, till both sides are heard.

He too was doubtless very well aware that, of all the ills that flesh is heir to, none is more grievous or more iniquitous than that a man should be condemned unjudged and unheard. That is precisely what the slanderer tries to effect by exposing the slandered without trial to his hearer’s wrath, and precluding defence by the secrecy of his denunciation.

Notes on the current edition

Slander: on not Being Quick to Put Faith in it

1. The Greek is here corrupt. The translation merely gives the probable sense of the passage.

2. Though this verse was frequently quoted in antiquity, its authorship was unknown even then, and it was variously, attributed to Phocylides, Hesiod, and Pittheus. See Bergk, Poet. Lyr. Graec. ii, p. 93.

Lucian of Samosata Calumniae non temere credundum 8

Austin Morris Harmon (Translator)

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