”
[13]
Witnesses are of two kinds, ancient and recent;
of the latter some share the risk of the trial, others are outside it. By
ancient I mean the poets and men of repute whose judgements are known to all;
for instance, the Athenians, in the matter of Salamis, appealed to Homer1 as a witness, and
recently the inhabitants of Tenedos
to Periander of Corinth2
against the Sigeans. Cleophon also made use of the elegiacs of Solon against
Critias, to prove that his family had long been notorious for licentiousness,
otherwise Solon would never have written: “
Bid me the fair-haired Critias listen to his father.3
1 Αἴας δ᾽ ἐκ Σαλαμῖνος ἄγεν δυοκαίδεκα νῆας, στῆσε δ᾽ ἄγων ἵν᾽ Α᾿θηναίων ἵσταντο φάλαγγες, Hom. Il. 2.557-558. The Lacedaemonians, acting as arbitrators between Athens and Megara, who were fighting for the possession of Salamis, decided in favor of Athens on the strength of the two lines in the Iliad, which were taken to show that Salamis belonged to Athens. It was reported that the second line was the invention of Solon.
2 It is not known to what this refers.
3 （Frag. 22, P.L.G. 2, where the line runs, εἰπέμεναι Κριτίᾳ ξανθότριχι πατρὸς ἀκούειν）. The Critias attacked by Cleophon is the well-known oligarch and grandson of the first. Cleophon argued from the phrase “bid him listen to his father” that his ancestor was a disobedient son and a degenerate. In reality, Solon had a high opinion of the family, and probably meant to praise the father.
Aristotle in 23 Volumes, Vol. 22, translated by J. H. Freese. Aristotle. Cambridge and London. Harvard University Press; William Heinemann Ltd. 1926.
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