Apollodoros suffered a large but not unpayable fine. Then Stephanos fabricated a charge of murder against Apollodoros, of which he was duly acquitted.
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ἔτι δὲ καί: “and what is more,” adding a further point
ἀποροῦντος: “poor” < ἀπορέω
ἔλαβεν: “took (a woman) in marriage”
ἄπροικον: girls were generally given in marriage with a dowry (προίξ), which their husband would manage (and the interest from which would support her). It wasn’t impossible to marry without a dowry, but it was uncommon.
περιεῖδον < περι-ὁράω
ἀναρπασθέντα: “utterly ruined” by being held responsible for a fine he couldn’t possibly afford, < ἀναρπάζω, “carry off, snatch away,” used figuratively.
ἐτίμησαν ταλάντου: that is, the jurors accepted Apollodoros’ counter-proposal of a one talent fine.
τὸν αὐτὸν ἔρανον...ἀποδοῦναι: “to return the same favor,” i.e., pay him back in the same way, by taking him to court. ἔρανος is literally a friendly loan, often without interest and therefore given as a kind of favor, here used ironically.
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ταυτῇ: adverbial, “in this way”
ἀνελεῖν: “destroy” < ἀν-αἱρέω
ἐπενέγκας < ἐπι-φέρω + αἰτίαν, “to bring a charge against (+ dat.)”
αἰτίαν: here, “charge, accusation”
Ἀφίδναζε: Aphidna is a town in northeast Attica. The suffix –ζε indicates direction toward.
ἀφικόμενος: Apollodoros is the antecedent.
ἐπὶ δραπέτην αὑτοῦ ζητῶν: “in search of a runaway slave of his (Apollodoros’).” Dilts, in his OCT (2009), marks ζητῶν as spurious, following Dobree, in which case the meaning is “because of a runaway slave of his” (see LSJ ἐπί C.III.1).
πατάξειε < πατάττω
ἄνθρωπος: it is unclear what the status of this woman was, since ἄνθρωπος in the feminine is often used pejoratively to refer to slaves (see §46). Because the Palladion is mentioned below, she was probably a slave, in which case Stephanos may have represented himself as her master.
παρασκευασάμενος: Stephanos is the antecedent.
κατασκευάσας < κατασκευάζω, “to represent (as)” (LSJ A.6)
Κυρηναῖοι: the reason for pretending that the slaves were individuals from Cyrene was presumably to use them as (free) witnesses; as slaves, they would have had to be tortured for testimony.
προεῖπεν < προεῖπον: this public proclamation, performed in the Agora, is the first step in bringing a homicide case. The trial itself would have been in the Palladion (see below).
Παλλαδίῳ: the Palladion was the court that heard cases of unintentional killing of citizens and both intentional and unintentional killing of slaves and foreigners.
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ἔλεγεν τὴν δίκην: this is a slightly unusual way of phrasing “to bring a suit”; perhaps it has the sense of “to plead one’s case.”
διομοσάμενος < διόμνυμι: for homicide trials, both sides had to swear an oath, the accuser swearing that he was making a truthful accusation, the accused that he was not guilty.
αὑτῷ: “upon himself (Stephanos),” i.e., if he were swearing falsely
ἐπαρασάμενος < ἐπαράομαι
εἶδεν < ὁράω
ἤκουσεν: “heard about from” + gen.
ἐξελεωχθείς < ἐξελέγχω
ἐπιορκῶν < ἐπιορκέω, “to swear falsely”
καταφανής: where English would say “it was clear,” Greek says “he was clear(ly).”
μεμισθωμένος...ἀργύριον εἰληφώς: “(having been) hired...receiving cash,” to procure the conviction of Apollodoros. εἰληφώς < λαμβάνω.
Κηφισοφῶντος καὶ Ἀπολλοφάνους: this is probably the Athenian politician Kephisophon son of Kallibios of Paiania. It is unclear who Apollophanes was, but he may have been a politician travelling in the same circles as Kephisophon and Stephanos.
ἐξελάσαι < ἐξ-ελαύνω
ἢ ἀτιμῶσαι: Gernet excises this phrase from the text, on the grounds that the penalty for homicide would (only) be exile, not disenfranchisement. Other editors (including Dilts 2009) retain it, on the grounds that a fine is a possibility, and if the fine were too high to be paid, it could result in disfranchisement.
πεντακοσίων: in most manuscripts πεντακοσίων is followed by δραχμῶν, but the majority of editors, following Reiske, delete the δραχμῶν. If δραχμῶν is accepted, it could refer either to how much Stephanos spent securing witnesses, or (perhaps less likely) to how much he was bribed to bring the case. A couple of manuscripts have δικαστῶν instead of δραχμῶν, thus “500 jurors,” which is unlikely for a case heard at the Palladion (which we hear elsewhere had 51 special jurors called ἐφέται).
ἐπιωρκηκὼς καὶ δόξας πονηρὸς εἶναι: “a perjured man and one with the reputation of a scoundrel”
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τί ἂν ἐχρησάμην: “what use I would have made of (+ dat.),” i.e., “what I would have done with” (see LSJ χράομαι C.III.4)
συνέβη < συμβαίνω: used impersonally here, with the dative + infinitive construction
ἀγῶνι: the word ἀγών is often used, as here, of court trials.
περιπεπτωκώς < περι-πίπτω
ἦν: 1st person singular, imperfect of εἰμί
