The plaintiff and the defendant were separated from Trito Demos. According to the law, in view of the fact that the plaintiff and the defendant do not necessarily know the "Code of Theoria" with many articles, and their eloquence is not necessarily good, they can hire a lawyer to conduct the court defense. Polyxis, who was tried first in the case, decided to defend himself, and since his crimes went far beyond those of the original plaintiff (i.e., the emancipated slaves), he was sued by a court-appointed prosecutor. And the prosecutor was Aristocrates, Davers's former clerk.

After Aristocrates obtained a Candidate Citizenship of Dionia, Davers suggested that he work in the court, and he successfully passed the examination, starting as a court recorder, and worked hard to learn Dionian law. When he became a full citizen of Dionia, he served as a junior judge in the circuit court, and for more than a year he became a rising star among Dionian judges with his dazzling achievements in adjudicating "more than 200 cases and disputes without fail". In this trial, Davers personally appointed him as a prosecutor and had high hopes for him.

Because Davers adapted the court system and transplanted it to Dionia, it was unique from the start.

You must know that the most respected Athenian court of this era did not have a special judge, only the magistrate maintained the procedure of the court, and the power of trial was in the hands of the jury, but the jury did not have a fixed number, but decided the number of people according to the size of the case, the highest number of jury members can reach more than 2,000 people, and the majority vote system determines the outcome of the trial. As a result, Athens had to be jured, no matter how big or small, and about three to four thousand citizens traveled back and forth every day to the various courts in the city and the port, and were also jokingly called by other city-states that "Athenians were Greeks who loved to litigate".

But in Dionia, in addition to important cases such as murder and treason...... In addition to the jury to decide, other civil disputes are generally directly decided by the judge, and even if the defendant makes a request for a jury, it is very likely to be dismissed. The reason for this is that the citizens of the Dionian League are relatively busy, military training, field work, market trade, public facilities construction...... There is not so much free time to sit in the courtroom and listen to the original defendant tell about things that have nothing to do with him.

And because the city-state of Athens was extremely wealthy, there was a monetary compensation for serving as a juror, and some citizens even made a living from it, so the citizens were happy to do it.

In short, Dionia's current strength and financial resources could not afford such a time-consuming and costly Athenian trial, and it was not prepared to do so. The Ionians suffered from the fear of breaking the law in terms of entering the legion, holding public office, receiving rewards from the city-state, etc., and truly large crimes were rare. As a result, it is rare for the public to see such a large jury trial, and many can be said to have witnessed for the first time how the Ionian trial worked.

Victory Square was soon filled with people, and people kept coming from outside the stadium......

When the water clock had reached the eight o'clock scale, Trito Demose rang the bell for the trial.

Since both the plaintiff and the defendant were already present, the prosecutor made a statement at the beginning. Aristocrates sued the temple for the emancipation of slaves, and the patrol searched and found evidence...... After a brief explanation, the jury was presented with the evidence found, accusing Polyxis of illegal possession of land and restricting the liberty of others.

The crowd began to commotion.

Trito Demose had to ring the bell to remind the people present to be quiet. He then motioned to the defendant, Polyxis, to defend himself.

As a long-time political veteran, Polyxis remained in high spirits because he knew that if he showed decadence, he would be perceived as guilty by the public. Although he did not participate in the development of the legal trial system, he had observed the whole process of Davers's persuasion of the senators, so he knew that the key to acquittal in the great trial of Dionya lay on the jury, so he said in an enthusiastic voice: "Ladies and gentlemen, at this moment I think of my father and my grandfather...... As one of the earliest founders of the city of Turii, they poured all their heart and blood into this once wild land, which led to the thriving city it is today. And I myself have been under the influence of my father, and since I have come of age, I have been working for the city, like you, working in the fields, being a soldier, participating in battles, serving as a low-ranking public official, and later being elected by the people many times as the general of Turiyi, and doing my best for the city-state—"

At this time, Aristocrates stood up and interrupted him: "Polyxis, as one of the generals of the former Turiyi, you should be held responsible for the burning of the city of Turiy!" And when the city was finally broken, you, as a general, did not lead the people to meet the enemy, but disappeared, and you dared to say that you gave everything for the city-state! This is simply not true! "Apparently, Aristocratic had carefully investigated the life of Polyxis beforehand.

As soon as he finished speaking, someone in the audience responded: "He's right!" I was in the ranks of the Crotonnes, and many of them were killed, including Neoses, but I never saw Polyxis from beginning to end! ”

"Coward!"

"Coward!"

……

Someone in the audience began to scold.

"Quiet! Be quiet! Trito Demose had to ring the bell again to remind the crowd to be quiet and admonish: "You two don't talk about topics that have nothing to do with this defense, and go back to the issues that are accused." ”

It should be said that because of the small number of large cases in the Dionian courts, young judges like Aristocratic were inexperienced, otherwise they could have protested at the very beginning of Polyxis's mouth.

But their initial confrontation attracted the attention of the public. The courtroom is like a battlefield, where the stakes and intensity are far greater than watching a drama. The Dionian populace began to open their eyes in anticipation of the more exciting debates that followed.

Polyxis was quite embarrassed, selfish, he really forgot that he had been a deserter, and originally wanted to continue to publicize his hard work in the Senate, but now it was no fun. He took a deep look at his opponent, and then began to speak: "As the patriarch of the Senate of Dionia, I have always regarded the consul Davers as an example and responded to the revelation of Hades, so I have given a large number of slaves freedom to my family regardless of my own losses, and so far 57 slaves have been released, and 6 of them have become official citizens, I think besides Lord Davers, there is any other citizen of Dionia who treats slaves so well as me!" No! Polyxis looked around with an awe-inspiring expression.

"The freed slaves, out of gratitude and repayment, gave me some money and goods every year in return, but I could not resist their kindness, so I reluctantly accepted it. Because with more money, I can buy more slaves and give more slaves freedom! …… Alas, but I never expected that it would be mistaken for embezzlement! This...... This was a huge blow to my passion to learn from Master Davers! This is a misunderstanding! ......" he made a look of grievance towards the jury.

Aristocrates said coldly: "Whether Polyxis is corrupt or not, please allow me to question the witnesses." ”

Trito Demos nodded in agreement.

Aristocrates called ten witnesses, all freed slaves of Polyxis, some had just been freed, some had become reserve citizens, and some were already full citizens. These few witnesses with citizenship did not want to appear in court, but were enforced by the court because it was the duty of Union citizens.

After they swore to the god Hades that they would not lie, Aristocrates asked him questions one by one, each sharper than the other. During this time, Polyxis tried to interrupt several times, but was reprimanded by Judge Trito Demose.

Seeing that Polyxis was not doing well, the witnesses were convicted of "blasphemy" for lying again, and they confided in all of them.

Now the people in the vicinity of Mutai have understood: first of all, the location of the land owned by these witnesses is already enviable, and it is all fertile land on the plains of Xubari. You must know that when the alliance was first formed, there were many people and little land, and in order to prevent the land from being barren, a lot of land was rented by free people and freed slaves. Later, the lease of the land in Xubari began to be tight, and it was not enough to distribute it to the reserve citizens, so how could the freedmen still rent the land, and the slaves just freed by Polyxis could still rent good land, which was a very big problem;

Secondly, after these witnesses had paid the Union's taxes, they had to pay another 40% of the land income of Polyxis;

Again, the witnesses who became full citizens had to give Polyxis 5 per cent of his land income every year. Why did a full citizen take the initiative to send him money? Because Polyxis bribed some of the people of the Ministry of Agriculture, and when he allotted "shares" to these people who became full citizens, he measured the land with a lot of one and a half acres. Since their "portions" are often in relatively remote places, they are not easy to be discovered. Therefore, these citizens from the Polyxis family benefited and were afraid that the land would be taken back during the annual inspection by the Ministry of Agriculture, so they took the initiative to give Polyxis benefits.

By the time Aristocratic finished asking, Polyxis had already felt the anger of the audience, and he hurriedly said loudly: "They are all lying! It's all lying! I didn't do any of these things at all, someone was framing me! I'm afraid I'll shake his hand on Dionia—"