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Plot on a Map
Athens.

(1) There were two Councils at Athens: the one that stood on the Areopagus, which decided cases of voluntary homicide and wounds and things like that, and the one that conducted city business. The latter changed every year and consisted of five hundred men who met the age requirement. There was a law enjoining this Council to have new triremes built, but if it did not do so, the law prevented it from requesting a gift from the people. (2) Now then, the Council has not built the triremes, but Androtion proposes before the people a decree to award the Council a crown, anyway. He is brought to trial for this under an indictment for an illegal proposal; two of his enemies, Euctemon and Diodorus, are his accusers. Euctemon has already spoken; Diodorus joins in next with this speech. (3) The accusers say, first, that the decree was not submitted in advance to the Council. (Although the law orders that a decree should not be brought before the people until it has been approved in the Council, Androtion acted contrary to this law by introducing a motion that was not first submitted to the Council.) Second, the accusers say that the decree is contrary to the law which orders a Council that has not built triremes not to request a gift. For if the Council is not allowed to ask for a gift, it is clear that the giving of said gift is not allowed, either. (4) <They adduce> the laws that pertain to this matter, but they also adduce two laws against Androtion’s character, the one about prostitution and the one about those who owe debts to the treasury. And they say that Androtion is disfranchised on both counts; for he has in fact lived as a prostitute and is liable to the city for his father’s debt.

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