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Hyperides: The orations against Athenogenes and Philippides
Hyperides The orations against Athenogenes and Philippides Author:F. G. Kenyon Mr. F. G. Kenyon, the editor of Classical Texts from the Papyri of the British Museum, now gives us a readable English version of the two recently recovered orations of Hyperides, together with the Greek text. The papyrus MS. of the oration against Athenogenes, now in the Louvre, is, with the exception of some fragments, the oldest existing, the... more » date suggested being that of B.C. 328. It is a fine piece of pleading, vigorous, clear, and persuasive, for the case of the client of Hyperides (whose name is not known) was weak in law, if strong in equity, and needed all the skill of the advocate for its effective presentation. Under Athenian law the purchaser of a slave became liable for all his debts, and in the present instance the wily Athenogenes had obtained a formal agreement from the plaintiff to buy a slave named Midas on the assurance that the debts of a perfumery business which he had managed were trifling and would be covered by the sale of the stock. The liabilities, however, proved so heavy as to mean ruin to the new owner of Midas, and accordingly, it is argued, that an engagement brought about by cajolery (for a certain Antigona appears as a go-between) and by false statement ought not to be held binding. The development of the case is full of interest, and the manner of the speech singularly natural and telling. The oration against Philippides has less dramatic interest, and the MS. shows considerable lacunae. As an ?advocate in a social cause célèbre,? says Mr. Kenyon, ?or in any matter requiring light and delicate handling, Hyperides was held to be unequalled,? being considered superior even to Demosthenes.