| Demosthenes, Speeches (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose; rhetoric] [word count] [lemma count] [Dem.]. | ||
| <<Dem. 36.38 | Dem. 36.48 (Greek) | >>Dem. 36.57 |
36.44It is remarkable what a striking thing it is in the eyes of people who are active in commercial life and in banking, when the same man is accounted industrious and is honest. note Well; this quality was not imparted to Pasio by his masters; he was himself honest by nature; nor did your father impart it to Phormio. It was yourself, rather than Phormio, whom he would have made honest, if he had had the power. If you do not know that for money-making the best capital of all is trustworthiness, you do not know anything at all. But, apart from all this, Phormio has in many ways shown himself useful to your father and to you, and in general to your affairs. But your insatiate greed and your character, I take it, no one could adequately express.
36.45I am surprised that you do not of yourself make this reflection, that Archestratus, to whom your father formerly belonged, has a son here, Antimachus, who fares not at all as he deserves, and who does not go to law with you and say that he is outrageously treated, because you wear a soft mantle, and have redeemed one mistress, and have given another in marriage (all this, while you have a wife of your own), and take three attendant slaves about with you, and live so licentiously that even those who meet you on the street perceive it, while he himself is in great destitution.
36.46Nor does he fail to see Phormio's condition. And yet if on this ground you think you have a claim on Phormio's property, because he once belonged to your father, Antimachus has a stronger claim than you have. For your father in his turn belonged to those men, so that both you and Phormio by this argument belong to Antimachus. But you are so lost to all proper feeling, that you yourself compel people to say things which you ought to hate anyone for saying.
36.47You disgrace yourself and your dead parents, and you cast reproach upon the state, and instead of adorning and cherishing this good fortune note which your father, and afterward Phormio have come to enjoy through the kindness of these men, so that it might have appeared as the highest of honors for those who gave it and for you who obtained it, you drag it into public view, you point the finger of scorn at it, you criticize it; you all but taunt the Athenians for admitting to citizenship a person like yourself.
36.48Indeed you have come to such a pitch of insanity—what other name can one find for it?—as not to see that at this moment we, who claim that, since Phormio has received his freedom, it should not be remembered against him that he once belonged to your father, are speaking in your interest; while you, in insisting that he should never be on a footing of equality with yourself, are speaking against yourself; for the same rule, which you lay down as just for yourself against Phormio, will be advanced against you by those who at the first were the masters of your father.
To prove that Pasio also was somebody's slave, and that he afterwards won his freedom in the same manner in which Phormio won his from you, take, please, these depositions, which show that Pasio belonged to Archestratus.Depositions
36.49The man, then, who at the first saved the family fortune, and rendered himself useful in many ways to this man's father, the man who has conferred upon Apollodorus himself all the benefits of which you have heard, he it is against whom the plaintiff seeks a judgement with such heavy damages, and thinks proper to cast out in ruin contrary to all right. For that, Apollodorus, is all that you could possibly accomplish. For, if you look closely at the property, you will see to whom it belongs, in case—which heaven forbid!—these jurymen are misled by you. note 36.50Do you see Aristolochus, son of Charidemus? Once he possessed some land; now many people own it; for he acquired it while he was in debt to many. And Sosinomus and Timodemus and the other bankers, who, when they had to settle with their creditors, had to give up all their property. But you think it unnecessary to have regard even for the precautions which your father, a far better man than you and a wiser, took to meet all contingencies. 36.51He—O Zeus and the gods—esteemed Phormio to be so much more valuable than you both to yourself and to him and to your business, that, although you were a man grown, it was to Phormio, not to you, that he left the control of the leases, and gave him his wife in marriage and honored him as long as he lived. And justly too, men of Athens. For other bankers, who had no rent to pay, but carried on their business on their own account, have all come to ruin; while Phormio, who paid a rent of two talents and forty minae, saved the bank for you. 36.52For this Pasio was grateful to him, but you make no account of it. Nay, in defiance of the will and the imprecations written in it by your father, you harass him, you prosecute him, you calumniate him. My good sir—you can be addressed by this term—will you not desist, and know this—that to be honest profits more than great wealth? In your own case, at any rate, although, if your words are true, you received all this money, it has all been lost, as you say. But, if you had been a man of character, you would not have squandered it.
36.53For my own part, by Zeus and the gods, though I look at the matter from every side, I can see no reason why the jury should be induced by you to give a verdict against the defendant. Why should they? Because you make your charges so soon after the offence? But you make them years and ages later. Ah, but you avoided the trouble of lawsuits all this time? But who does not know of all the cases in which you have been engaged without ceasing, not only prosecuting private suits of no less importance than the present one, but maliciously trumping up public charges, and bringing men to trial? Did you not accuse Timomachus? Did you not accuse Callippus, who is now in Sicily? Or, again, Meno? or Autocles? or Timotheus? or hosts of others? note
| Demosthenes, Speeches (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose; rhetoric] [word count] [lemma count] [Dem.]. | ||
| <<Dem. 36.38 | Dem. 36.48 (Greek) | >>Dem. 36.57 |
