Speeches from Athenian Law

DEMOSTHENES 54. AGAINST CONON

DEMOSTHENES . AGAINST CONON introduction From antiquity until the present day, Against Conon has been one of the favorite speeches of the Demosthenic corpus. Moderns are amused by its vivid portrayal of drunken brawling in an army camp and in the streets of Athens itself, as well as the other forms of shocking behavior the speaker describes. There is, moreover, much interest in the speaker’s discussion of the choices available to a man contemplating a lawsuit and his account of an arbitration hearing. If we are to believe Ariston, the speaker, there was no enmity between himself and Conon until he had the bad luck to find himself bivouacked near Conon’s sons, who for no good reason directed what we can term frank anal aggression against Ariston’s slaves. The hostilities continued and escalated when Ariston returned from military duty. This time (so we are told) Conon, the defendant, not only actively participated in the abuse but took the lead. The actual charge is battery (aikeia), but Ariston repeatedly refers to hybris. The Athenian law of hybris has generated much debate in the recent past. The word itself is difficult to pin down but seems to designate both a state of mind combining overconfidence and arrogance, and conduct (often but not necessarily violent) either designed to humiliate others or showing reckless contempt for the rights and status of others. As an offense under the laws, hybris overlaps with crimes of violence (assault, rape), but scholars are not agreed on the degree to which the law  The matter is highly controversial; see Fisher 1992. For hybris as an unde- fined term, see Dem. 21.47. For a short discussion of Athenian legal terminology, see Todd 1993: 61–62. 88 demosthenes 54 might be applied to nonviolent conduct. In Aeschines 1.15, Aeschines argues that hiring a free boy for sex is hybris, but the addition of “I imagine” (pou) betrays an attempt at persuasive definition. Neither the date of the events Ariston describes nor the date of the trial can be confidently ascertained. demosthenes 54. against conon [1] I was assaulted, gentlemen of the jury, and at the hands of Conon, the man here, I suffered injuries so severe that for a very long time neither my family nor any of the doctors expected I would survive . But when I unexpectedly recovered and was out of danger, I initiated this private case for battery (dikē aikeias) against him. All the friends and relatives whom I asked for advice said that for his deeds Conon was liable to summary arrest (apagōgē) as a cloak stealer and to public suits for hybris (graphai hybreōs). But they advised me and urged me not to involve myself in greater troubles than I could handle; and also, not to be seen to complain more than a young man should about what was done to me. I have acted accordingly and, because of those advisers, have instituted a private case, but I would, with the greatest pleasure, men of Athens, have put him on trial on a capital charge. [2] You will all forgive this feeling, I’m sure, when you hear what I suffered. You see, shocking as the assault was, his brutality afterward was no less terrible. I say it is right, and I ask you all without distinction, first, to listen sympathetically to my account of what I suffered, and second, if it seems that I have been wronged and treated illegally, to help me—as is just. I will tell you from the beginning how each of the events happened, in as few words as I can. [3] Two years ago I went out to Panactum when we were assigned guard duty there. The sons of this man Conon pitched their tent near us—I wished they hadn’t. You see, that is where the hatred and the clashes between us first began: you will hear what it started from. These men regularly spent the day drinking, starting right off at their  Lit. “subjected to hybris.” See the Speech Introduction.  This would have been understood as a crime committed not to acquire a valuable object but to humiliate the victim; see above, Ant. 2.1.4n. against conon 89 first meal, and they went on doing this for as long as we were on guard duty. We, on the other...