Against Pancleon, Showing that He was not a Plataean

To speak at length upon this matter, gentlemen of the jury, is both beyond my powers and, to my mind, unnecessary; but that I am correct in obtaining leave for my suit against this man Pancleon as being no Plataean, I will attempt to prove to you.

As he continued to injure me for a long time, I went to the fuller’s where he was working and summoned him before the Polemarch, supposing him to be a resident alien. On his stating that he was a Plataean, I asked to what township he belonged, since one of my witnesses there advised me to summon him also before the court of the tribe of which he might pretend to be a member. When he replied “to Decelea,” I summoned him before the court of tribe Hippothontis; I then went and asked at barber’s in the street of the Hermae, where the Deceleans resort, and I inquired of such Deceleans as I could discover if they knew a certain Pancleon belonging to the township of Decelea. As nobody spoke to knowing him, and I learnt that he was then a defendant in some other suits before the Polemarch, and had been cast in some, I took proceedings on my own part.