Greek Texts & Translations

27.58I have many other charges to make against him, but summing them all up in one, I will break down every defence of his. He could have avoided all this trouble, had he let the estate in accordance with these laws.

Take the laws and read them.Laws

In the case of Antidorus, as a result of his property having been let in accordance with these laws, there was given over to him, at the end of six years, an estate of six talents and more from an original amount of three talents and three thousand drachmae; and this some of you have seen with your own eyes; for Theogenes of Probalinthus, ^note who leased the estate, counted out that sum in the market-place. 27.59But in my case, fourteen talents in ten years, when consideration is given to the time and the terms of his lease, ought to have been more than trebled. Ask him why he did not do this. If he declares that it was better not to let the estate, let him show, not that it has been doubled or trebled, but that the mere principal has been paid back to me in full. But if out of fourteen talents they have handed over to me not even seventy minae, and one of them has actually recorded me as in his debt, how can it be right to accept any word they say? It is surely impossible.

27.60Seeing that the fortune left me was of so great value, as you heard at the beginning, the third part of it bringing in an income of fifty minae, these men, albeit insatiate in their greed, even if they refused to let the property, might out of this income and leaving the principal untouched, have maintained us, paid the taxes to the state, and saved the residue. 27.61The rest of the estate—an amount twice as large—they might have invested profitably, and, if greedy for money, have taken a reasonable amount for themselves, and have increased my estate from the income, besides keeping the principal intact. Yet they did nothing of the sort. Instead, by selling to one another the most valuable of the slaves and by absolutely doing away with the rest, they destroyed the existing source of my income and secured a considerable one for themselves at my cost. 27.62Having taken all the rest thus shamefully, they unite in maintaining that more than half of my property was never left to me at all. They have rendered an account as though the estate were one of five talents only; they do not produce the principal, though reporting no income from it, but have the impudence to tell me that the capital itself has been expended. And for this audacity they feel no shame! 27.63What, pray, would have been my plight, if I had continued longer as their ward? They would have hard work to tell. For when, after the lapse of ten years, I have recovered so little from two of these men, and by the third am even set down as a debtor, have I not good ground for indignation? Nay, it is wholly clear. If I had been left an orphan of a year old, and had been six years longer under their guardianship, I should never have recovered even the pitiful amounts I now have. For, if the expenditures they have made were justifiable, the sums they have handed over to me would not have lasted six years, but they would either have had to support me themselves or to have let me perish from hunger. 27.64Yet is it not an outrage, if estates left to others of a value of one or two talents have as a result of letting been doubled or trebled, so that the owners have been called upon for state services, ^note while mine, which has been wont to equip triremes and to make large contributions in taxes, will be unable to contribute even small sums thanks to the shameless acts of these men? What words are gross enough to describe their conduct? They have done away with the will, thinking to avoid discovery, their own estates they have administered from the income, and have greatly increased their capital by drawing upon my funds, while, as for my own estate, they have destroyed my entire capital, as if in requital for some grievous wrong we had done them. 27.65You, on your part, do not act thus even toward those who sin against you: when you give judgement against any of them, you do not take away all that they have, but in pity for their wives and children you leave something even to these. But these men are so different from you that, although they had received legacies from us to make them administer their trust faithfully, they have done us these outrageous wrongs. They felt no touch of shame for their ruthlessness toward my sister, who, though my father left two talents as the dowry due her, will now get no fitting portion. Nay, they have recked nothing of kinship, as though they had been left to us, not as friends and kinsfolk, but as bitterest enemies.

27.66For myself, I am the most wretched of men. I am helpless both to give my sister a portion and to maintain myself. Besides this, the state is pressing me hard, demanding taxes, and with right, for my father left me an estate large enough to pay them; but these men have taken all the money left me.