Greek Texts & Translations

1.21To resume then, gentlemen. After this, time passed, merchant ships from Athens continued to arrive at Rhodes, and it was clear that no disaster had overtaken the city. So Leocrates grew alarmed, and embarking again, left Rhodes for Megara. He stayed at Megara for over five years with a Megarian as his patron, unashamed at living on the boundaries of Attica, an alien on the borders of the land that nurtured him. 1.22He had condemned himself so finally to a lifetime of exile that he sent for Amyntas, the husband of his elder sister, and Antigenes of Xypete, a friend of his, to come to him from Athens, and asked his brother-in-law to buy his house and slaves from him, selling them to him for a talent. Out of this sum he arranged that his debts should be settled, his loans paid off ^note and the balance restored to him. 1.23After concluding all this business Amyntas resold the slaves himself for thirty-five minas to Timochares of Acharnae who had married Leocrates' younger sister. Timochares had no ready money for the purchase and so drew up an agreement which he lodged with Lysicles ^note and paid Amyntas interest of one mina. To convince you that this is fact, lest you should think it idle talk, the clerk shall read you the evidence relating to these points also. If Amyntas had been still alive I should have produced him in person; since he is not, I am summoning for you the men who know the facts. Please read me this evidence showing that Amyntas bought the slaves and house from Leocrates at Megara.Evidence

1.24Now hear how Philomelos of Cholargus and Menelaus, once an envoy to the King, received from Amyntas forty minas owed them.Evidence

Please take the evidence of Timochares who bought the slaves from Amyntas for thirty-five minas, and also his agreement.Evidence
Agreement

1.25You have heard the witnesses, gentlemen. What I am now going to say will give you good reason for indignation and hatred of this man Leocrates. For he was not content simply to remove his own person and his goods. There were the sacred images of his family which his forbears established and which, in keeping with your customs and ancestral tradition, they afterwards entrusted to him. These too he had sent to Megara. He took them out of the country without a qualm at the name “ancestral images” or at the thought that he had uprooted them from their country and expected them to share his exile, to leave the temples and the land which they had occupied and be established in a strange and uncongenial place, as aliens to the soil and to the rites traditionally observed in Megara. 1.26Your fathers, honoring ^note Athena as the deity to whom their land had been allotted, called their native city Athens, so that men who revered the goddess should not desert the city which bore her name. By disregarding custom, country, and sacred images Leocrates did all in his power to cause even your divine protection to be exported. Moreover, to have wronged the city on this enormous scale was not enough for him. Living at Megara and using as capital the money which he had withdrawn from Athens he shipped corn, bought from Cleopatra, ^note from Epirus to Leucas and from there to Corinth.