There are two kinds of narration in judicial matters, the one for the
cause, the other for things belonging to it. "I have not killed that
man." This needs no narration. I admit it does not; but there may be a
narration, and even somewhat long, concerning the probable causes of
innocence in the accused, as his former integrity of life, the
opponent's motives for endangering the life of a guiltless person, and
other circumstances arguing the incredibility of the accusation. The
accuser does not merely say, "You have committed that murder," but shows
reasons to evince its credibility; as, in tragedies, when Teucer imputes
the death of Ajax to Ulysses, he says that "He was found in a lonely
place, near the dead body of his enemy, with his sword all bloody."
Ulysses, in answer, not only denies the crime, but protests there was
no enmity between him and Ajax, and that they never contended but for
glory. Then he relates how he came into that solitary place, how he
found Ajax dead, and that it was Ajax's own sword he drew out of his
wound. To these are subjoined proofs, but the proofs, too, are not
without narration, the plaintiff alleging, "You were in the place where
your enemy was found killed." "I was not," says the defendant, and he
tells where he was.