Cast of Characters:
Apollodorus: the likely author and principal speaker in the oration. He was the son of Archippe and Pasion, a former slave who, upon being freed, acquired ownership of a bank and was subsequently awarded Athenian citizenship. Upon Pasion's death, both the bank and his widow (Apollodorus' mother) passed to Phormio, a former slave of Pasion's who, like him, had been freed and acquired Athenian citizenship.
Theomnestus: the brother-in-law of Apollodorus and speaker of the first section of the oration. He married his niece, the daughter of Apollodorus and Theomnestus' sister.
Stephanus: huband of Neaera and an enemy of Apollodorus. He was also a cousin of Theomnestus, since Stephanus' mother was the sister of Theomnestus' father. Stephanus and Apollodorus were fellow-demesmen, from Acharnai. Theomnestus was from the nearby deme of Athmonon. To see the location of these demes, follow this link, and then click on the circled section of the map to see a detail showing the relationship between Acharnai and Athmonon, and both of them in relation to Athens.
Neaera: the principal defendant in the case, who is prosecuted on a charge of being a foreigner posing as an Athenian citizen. One question about her frequently asked is whether she herself was in court for these proceedings. As you read through the speech, ask yourself what indications you can detect that this was or was not the case.
The date of the oration is 349 BCE. The translation of the speech is the same one as on Perseus, by A.T. Murray.

As you read through the oration, refer to the explanatory notes for the linked items.

1. MANY indeed are the reasons, men of Athens, which urged me to prefer this indictment against Neaera, and to come before you. We have suffered grievous wrongs at the hands of Stephanus and have been brought by him into the most extreme peril, I mean my father-in law, myself, my sister, and my wife; so that I shall enter upon this trial, not as an aggressor, but as one seeking vengeance. For Stephanus was the one who began our quarrel without ever having been wronged by us in word or deed. I wish at the outset to state before you the wrongs which we have suffered at this hands, in order that you may feel more indulgence for me as I seek to defend myself and to show you into what extreme danger we were brought by him of losing our country and our civic rights.

2. When the people of Athens passed a decree granting the right of citizenship to Pasion and his descendants on account of services to the state, my father favoured the granting of the people's gift, and himself gave in marriage to Apollodorus, son of Pasion, his own daughter, my sister, and she is the mother of the children of Apollodorus. Inasmuch as Apollodorus acted honourably toward my sister and toward all of us, and considered us in truth his relatives and entitled to share in all that he had, I took to wife his daughter, my own niece.

3. After some time had elapsed Apollodorus was chosen by lot as a member of the senate; and when he had passed the scrutiny and had sworn the customary oath, there came upon the city a war and a crisis so grave that, if victors, you would be supreme among the Greek peoples, and would beyond possibility of dispute have recovered your own possessions and have crushed Philip in war, but, if your help arrived too late and you abandoned your allies, allowing your army to be disbanded for want of money, you would lose these allies, forfeit the confidence of the rest of the Greeks, and risk the loss of your other possessions, Lemnos and Imbros, and Scyros and the Chersonese.

4. You were at that time on the point of sending your entire force to Euboea and Olynthus, and Apollodorus, being one of its members, brought forward in the senate a bill, and carried it as a preliminary decree to the assembly, proposing that the people should decide whether the funds remaining over from the state's expenditure should be used for military purposes or for public spectacles. For the laws prescribed that, when there was war, the funds remaining over from state expenditures should be devoted to military purposes, and Apollodorus believed that the people ought to have power to do what they pleased with their own; and he had sworn that, as member of the senate, he would act for the best interests of the Athenian people, as you all bore witness at that crisis.

5. For when the division took place there was not a man whose vote opposed the use of these funds for military purposes; and even now, if the matter is anywhere spoken of, it is acknowledged by all that Apollodorus gave the best advice, and was unjustly treated. It is, therefore, upon the one who by his arguments deceived the jurors that your wrath should fall, not upon those who were deceived.

This fellow Stephanus indicted the decree as illegal, and came before a court. He produced false witnesses to substantiate the calumnious charge that Apollodorus had been a debtor to the treasury for twenty five years, and by making all sorts of accusations that were foreign to the indictment won a verdict against the decree.

So far as this is concerned, if he saw fit to follow this course, we do not take it ill; but when the jurors were casting their votes to fix the penalty, although we begged him to make concessions, he would not listen to us, but fixed the fine at fifteen talents in order to deprive Apollodorus and his children of their civic rights, and to bring my sister and all of us into extremest distress and utter destitution.

7. For the property of Apollodorus did not amount to as much as three talents to enable him to pay in full a fine of such magnitude, yet if it were not paid by the ninth prytany the fine would have been doubled and Apollodorus would have been inscribed as owing thirty talents to the treasury, all the property that he has would have been scheduled as belonging to the state, and upon its being sold Apollodorus himself and his children and his wife and all of us would have been reduced to extremest distress.

8. And more than this, his other daughter would never have been given in marriage; for who would ever have taken to wife a portionless girl from a father who was a debtor to the treasury and without resources? Of such magnitude, you see, were the calamities which Stephanus was bringing upon us all without ever having been wronged by us in any respect. To the jurors, therefore, who at that time decided the matter I am deeply grateful for this at least, that they did not suffer Apollodorus to be utterly ruined, but fixed the amount of the fine at one talent, so that he was able to discharge the debt, although with difficulty. With good reason, then, have we undertaken to pay Stephanus back in the same coin.

9. For not only did Stephanus seek in this way to bring us to ruin, but he even wished to drive Apollodorus from his country. He brought a false charge against him that, having once gone to Aphidna in search of a runaway slave of his, he had there struck a woman, and that she had died of the blow; and he suborned some slaves and got them to give out that they were men of Cyrene, and by public proclamation cited Apollodorus before the court of the Palladium on a charge of murder.

10. This fellow Stephanus prosecuted the case, declaring on oath that Apollodorus had killed the woman with his own hand, and he imprecated destruction upon himself and his race and his house, affirming matters which had never taken place, which he had never seen or heard from any human being. However, since he was proved to have committed perjury and to have brought forward a false accusation, and was shown to have been hired by Cephisophon and Apollophanes to procure for pay the banishment or the disfranchisement of Apollodorus, he received but a few votes out of a total of five hundred, and left the court a perjured man and one with the reputation of a scoundrel.

11. Now, men of the jury, I would have you ask yourselves, considering in your own minds the natural course of events, what I could have done with myself and my wife and my sister, if it had fallen to the lot of Apollodorus to suffer any of the injuries which this fellow Stephanus plotted to inflict upon him in either the former or the latter trial, or how great were the disgrace and the ruin in which I should have been involved.

12. People came to me privately from all sides exhorting me to exact punishment from my opponent for the wrongs he had done us. They flung in my teeth the charge that I was the most cowardly of humankind, if, being so closely related to them, I did not take vengeance for the injuries done my sister, my father in law, my sister's children, and my own wife, and if I did not bring before you this woman who is guilty of such flagrant impiety toward the gods, of such outrage toward the commonwealth, and of such contempt for your laws, and by prosecuting her and by my arguments convicting her of crime, to enable you to deal with her as you might see fit.

13. And as Stephanus here sought to deprive me of my relatives contrary to your laws and your decrees, so I too have come before you to prove that Stephanus is living with an alien woman contrary to the law; that he has introduced children not his own to his fellow clansmen and demesmen; that he has given in marriage the daughters of courtesans as though they were his own; that he is guilty of impiety toward the gods; and that he nullifies the right of your people to bestow its own favours, if it chooses to admit anyone to citizenship; for who will any longer seek to win this reward from you and to undergo heavy expense and much trouble in order to become a citizen, when he can get what he wants from Stephanus at less expense, assuming that the result for him is to be the same?

14. The injuries, then, which I have suffered at the hands of Stephanus, and which led me to prefer this indictment, I have told you. I must now prove to you that this woman Neaera is an alien, that she is living with this man Stephanus as his wife, and that she has violated the laws of the state in many ways. I make of you, therefore, men of the jury, a request which seems to me a proper one for a young man and one without experience in speaking--that you will permit me to call Apollodorus as advocate to assist me in this trial.

15. For he is older than I and is better acquainted with the laws. He has studied all these matters with the greatest care, and he too has been wronged by this fellow Stephanus; so that no one can object to his seeking vengeance upon the one who injured him without provocation. It is your duty, in the light of truth itself, when you have heard the exact nature both of the accusation and the defence, then and not till then to reach a verdict which will be in the interest of the gods of the laws, of justice, and of your own selves.

16. The wrongs done me by Stephanus, men of Athens, which have led me to come forward to accuse this woman Neaera, have been told you by Theomnestus. And that Neaera is an alien woman and is living as his wife with Stephanus contrary to the laws, I wish to make clear to you. First, the clerk shall read you the law under which Theomnestus preferred this indictment and this case comes before you.

If an alien shall live as husband with an Athenian woman in any way or manner whatsoever, he may be indicted before the Thesmothetae by anyone who chooses to do so from among the Athenians having the right to bring charges. And if he be convicted, he shall be sold, himself and his property, and the third part shall belong to the one securing his conviction. The same principle shall hold also if an alien women shall live as wife with an Athenian, and the Athenian who lives as husband with the alien woman so convicted shall be fined one thousand drachmae.

17. You have heard the law, men of the jury, which forbids the union of an alien woman with an Athenian, or of an Athenian woman with an alien in any way or manner whatsoever, or the procreation of children. And if any persons shall transgress this law, it has provided that there shall be an indictment against them before the Thesmothetae, against both the alien man and the alien woman, and that, if convicted, any such person shall be sold. I wish, therefore, to prove to you convincingly from the very beginning that this woman Neaera is an alien.

18. There were these seven girls who were purchased while they were small children by Nicarete, who was the freedwoman of Charisius the Elean and the wife of his cook Hippias. She was skilled in recognizing the budding beauty of young girls and knew well how to bring them up and train them artfully; for she made this her profession, and she got her livelihood from the girls.

19. She called them by the name of daughters in order that, by giving out that they were free women, she might exact the largest fees from those who wished to enjoy them. When she had reaped the profit of the youthful prime of each, she sold them, all seven, without omitting one--Anteia and Stratola and Aristocleia and Metaneira and Phila and Isthmias and this Neaera.

20. Who it was who purchased them severally, and how they were set free by those who bought them from Nicarete, I will tell you in the course of my speech, if you care to hear and if the water in the water clock holds out. I wish for the moment to return to the defendant Neaera, and prove to you that she belonged to Nicarete, and that she lived as a prostitute letting out her person for hire to those who wished to enjoy her.

21. Lysias, the sophist, being the lover of Metaneira wished, in addition to the other expenditures which he lavished upon her, also to initiate her; for he considered that everything else which he expended upon her was being taken by the woman who owned her, but that from whatever he might spend on her behalf for the festival and the initiation the girl herself would profit and be grateful to him. So he asked Nicarete to come to the mysteries bringing with her Metaneira that she might be initiated, and he promised that he would himself initiate her.

22. When they got here, Lysias did not bring them to his own house, out of regard for his wife, the daughter of Brachyllus and his own niece, and for his own mother, who was elderly and who lived in the same house; but he lodged the two, Metaneira and Nicarete, with Philostratus of Colonus, who was a friend of his and was as yet unmarried. They were accompanied by this woman Neaera, who had already taken up the trade of a prostitute, young as she was; for she was not yet old enough.

23. To prove the truth of my statements--that the defendant belonged to Nicarete and followed in her train, and that she prostituted her person to anyone who wished to pay for it--I will call Philostratus as witness to these facts.

Philostratus, son of Dionysius, of Colonus, deposes that he knows that Neaera was a slave of Nicarete, to whom Metaneira also belonged, that they were residents of Corinth, and that they stayed at his house when they came to Athens for the mysteries, and that Lysias the son of Cephalus, who was an intimate friend of his, established them in his house.

24. Again after this, men of Athens, Simus the Thessalian came here with the defendant Neaera for the great Panathenaea. Nicarete came with her, and they lodged with Ctesippus son of Glauconides, of Cydantidae; and the defendant Neaera drank and dined with them in the presence of many men, as any courtesan would do.

To prove the truth of my statements, I will call witnesses to these facts.

25. (To the clerk.) Please call Euphiletus, son of Simon, of Aexone, and Aristomachus, son of Critodemus, of Alopece.

Euphiletus son of Simon, of Aexone, and Aristomachus son of Critodemus, of Alopece, depose that they know that Simus the Thessalian came to Athens for the great Panathenaea, and that Nicarete came with him, and Neaera the present defendant and that they lodged with Ctesippus son of Glauconides, and that Neaera drank with them as being a courtesan, while many others were present and joined in the drinking in the house of Ctesippus.

26. After this, you must know, she plied her trade openly in Corinth and was quite a celebrity, having among other lovers Xenocleides the poet, and Hipparchus the actor, who kept her on hire. To prove the truth of my statement I cannot bring before you the testimony of Xenocleides, since the laws do not permit him to testify.

27. For when on the advice of Callistratus you undertook to aid the Lacedaemonians, he at that time opposed in the assembly the vote to do so, because he had purchased the right to collect the two per cent tax on grain during the peace, and was obliged to deposit his collections in the senate chamber during each prytany. For this he was entitled to exemption under the laws and did not go out on that expedition; but he was indicted by this man Stephanus for avoidance of military duty, and being slanderously maligned in the latter's speech before the court, was convicted and deprived of his civic rights.

28. And yet do you not count it a monstrous thing that this Stephanus has taken the right of free speech from those who are native born citizens and are lawful members of our commonwealth, and in defiance of all the laws forces upon you as Athenians those who have no such right ? I will, however, call Hipparchus himself and force him either to give testimony or take the oath of disclaimer, or I will subpoena him.

(To the clerk.) Please call Hipparchus.

Hipparchus of Athmonon deposes that Xenocleides and he hired in Corinth Neaera, the present defendant, as a courtesan who prostituted herself for money, and that Neaera used to drink at Corinth in the company of himself and Xenocleides the poet.

29. After this, then, she had two lovers, Timanoridas the Corinthian and Eucrates the Leucadian. These men seeing that Nicarete was extravagant in the sums she exacted from them, for she demanded that they should supply the entire daily expenses of the household, paid down to Nicarete thirty minae as the price of Neaera's person, and purchased the girl outright from her in accordance with the law of the city, to be their slave.

30. And they kept her and made use of her as long a time as they pleased. When, however, they were about to marry, they gave her notice that they did not want to see her, who had been their own mistress, plying her trade in Corinth or living under the control of a brothel keeper; but that they would be glad to recover from her less than they had paid down, and to see her reaping some advantage for herself. They offered, therefore, to remit one thousand drachmae toward the price of her freedom, five hundred drachmae apiece; and they bade her, when she found the means, to pay them the twenty minae. When she heard this proposal from Eucrates and Timanoridas, she summoned to Corinth among others who had been her lovers Phrynion of Paeania, the son of Demon and the brother of Demochares, a man who was living a licentious and extravagant life, as the older ones among you remember.

31. When Phrynion came to her, she told him the proposal which Eucrates and Timanoridas had made to her, and gave him the money which she had collected from her other lovers as a contribution toward the price of her freedom, and added whatever she had gained for herself, and she begged him to advance the balance needed to make up the twenty minae, and to pay it to Eucrates and Timanoridas to secure her freedom.

32. He listened gladly to these words of hers,: and taking the money which had been paid in to her by her other lovers added the balance himself and paid the twenty minae as the price of her freedom to Eucrates and Timanoridas on the condition that she should not ply her trade in Corinth.

To prove that these statements of mine are true, I will call as witness to them the man who was present.

(To the clerk.) Please call Philagrus of Melite.

Philagrus of Melite deposes that he was present in Corinth when Phrynion, the brother of Demochares, paid down twenty minae as the price of Neaera, the present defendant, to Timanoridas, the Corinthian, and Eucrates, the Leucadian; and that after paying down the money Phrynion went off to Athens, taking Neaera with him.

33. When he came back here, bringing her with him, he treated her without decency or restraint, taking her everywhere with him to dinners where there was drinking and making her a partner in his revels; and he had intercourse with her openly whenever and wherever he wished, making his privilege a display to the onlookers. He took her to many houses to gay parties and among them to that of Chabrias of Aexone, when, in the archonship of Socratidas, he was victor at the Pythian games with the four horse chariot which he had bought from the sons of Mitys, the Argive, and returning from Delphi he gave a feast at Colias, to celebrate his victory, and in that place many had intercourse with her when she was drunk, while Phrynion was asleep, among them even the serving men of Chabrias.

34. To prove that these statements of mine are true, I will bring before you as witnesses those who were present and saw for themselves.

(To the clerk.) Please call Chionides of Xypete and Euthetion of Cydathenaeum.

Chionides of Xypete and Euthetion of Cydathenaeum depose that they were invited to dinner by Chabrias, when he celebrated with a banquet his victory in the chariot-race, and that the banquet was held at Colias, and that they know that Phrynion was present at the banquet, having with him Neaera, the present defendant; that they themselves lay down to sleep, as did Phrynion and Neaera, and that they observed that men got up in the night to go in to Neaera, among them some of the serving men who were household slaves of Chabrias.

35. Since, then, she was treated with wanton outrage by Phrynion, and was not loved as she expected to be, and since her wishes were not granted by him, she packed up his household goods and all the clothing and jewelry with which he had adorned her person, and, taking with her two maid servants, Thratta and Coccaline, ran off to Megara. This was the period when Asteius was archon at Athens, at the time you were waging your second war against the Lacedaemonians.

36. She remained at Megara two years, that of the archonship of Asteius and that of Alcisthenes, but the trade of prostitution did not bring in enough money to maintain her establishment--she was lavish in her tastes, and the Megarians were niggardly and illiberal, and there were but few foreigners there on account of the war and because the Megarians favoured the Lacedaemonian side, while you were in control of the sea; it was, however, not open to her to return to Corinth, because she had got her freedom from Eucrates and Timanoridas on the condition that she would not ply her trade in Corinth;

37. --so, when peace was made in the archonship of Phrasicleides, and the battle was fought at Leuctra between the Thebans and the Lacedaemonians, this man Stephanus, having at the time come to Megara and having put up at Neaera's house, as at the house of a courtesan, and having had intercourse with her, she told him all that had taken place and her brutal treatment by Phrynion. She gave him besides all that she had brought away from Phrynion's house, and as she was eager to live at Athens, but was afraid of Phrynion because she had wronged him and he was bitter against her, and she knew he was a man of violent and reckless temper, she took Stephanus here for her patron.

38. He on his part encouraged her there in Megara: with confident words, boastfully asserting that if Phrynion should lay hands on her he would have cause to rue it, whereas he himself would keep her as his wife and would introduce the sons whom she then had to his clansmen as being his own, and would make them citizens; and he promised that no one in the world should harm her. So he brought her with him from Megara to Athens, and with her her three children, Proxenus and Ariston and a daughter whom they now call Phano.

39. He established her and her children in the cottage which he had near the Whispering Hermes between the house of Dorotheus the Eleusinian and that of Cleinomachus--the cottage which Spintharus has now bought from him for seven minae; so the property which Stephanus owned was just this and nothing besides. There were two reasons why he brought her here: first, because he would have a beautiful mistress without cost, and secondly, because her earnings would procure supplies and maintain the house; for he had no other income save what he might get by pettifoggery.

40. Phrynion, however, learned that the woman was in Athens, and was living with Stephanus, and taking some young men with him he came to the house of Stephanus and attempted to carry her off. When Stephanus took her away from him, as the law allowed, declaring her to be a free woman, Phrynion required her to post bonds with the polemarch.

To prove that this statement is true, I will bring before you as a witness to these facts the man himself who was polemarch at the time.

(To the clerk.) Please call Aeetes of Ceiriadae.

Aeetes of Ceiriadae deposes that while he was polemarch, Neaera, the present defendant, was required by Phrynion, the brother of Demochares, to post bonds, and that the sureties of Neaera were Stephanus of Eroeadae, Glaucetes of Cephisia, and Aristocrates of Phalerum.