| Demosthenes, Speeches (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose; rhetoric] [word count] [lemma count] [Dem.]. | ||
| <<Dem. 49.1 | Dem. 49.6 (Greek) | >>Dem. 49.18 |
49.2for he got from my father all that he asked, and received from the bank money at a time when he was in great need and when he was in grievous danger of losing his life note; yet he has not only made no return, but even seeks to rob me of the money which was granted him. And yet, if matters had gone badly with Timotheus, my father's money, too, was lost, for he lent it without security and without witnesses; but, if the defendant got off safe, it rested with him to choose when, having the funds available, he should pay us back.
49.3But for all that, men of the jury, my father did not count the holding of large sums of money as important a matter as to supply Timotheus with what he needed in the time of his distress. No, my father thought, men of the jury, that, if Timotheus then got safely out of those dangers and returned home from the service of the king, note when the defendant was in better circumstances than at the time, he would not only recover his money, but would be in a position to obtain whatever else he might wish from Timotheus.
49.4But as matters have not turned out as my father expected, since the money which Timotheus asked of my father and gratefully received from the bank he is determined, now that my father is dead, to pay back only if forced to do so by hostile legal procedure, and by convincing proof of his indebtedness, and, if he can convince you by deceitful arguments that he is not liable, to rob us of the money—I count it necessary to inform you fully of everything from the beginning: the several loans, the purpose for which he expended each sum, and the dates at which the obligations were contracted.
49.5And let no one of you wonder that I have accurate knowledge of these matters; for bankers are accustomed to write out memoranda of the sums which they lend, the purposes for which funds are desired, and the payments which a borrower makes, in order that his receipts and his payments may be known to them for their accounts.
49.6It was then, in the archonship of Socratidas, note in the month Munichion, note when the defendant Timotheus was about to sail on his second expedition and was already in the Peiraeus on the point of putting to sea, that, being in want of money, he came to my father in the port and urged him to lend him one thousand three hundred and fifty-one drachmae two obols, declaring that he needed that additional sum; and he bade him give the money to his treasurer Antimachus, who at that time managed everything for him.
49.7It was Timotheus who borrowed the money from my father, and who bade him give it to his treasurer Antimachus, but the one who received the money from Phormio at the bank was Autonomus, who throughout all that time served as secretary to Antimachus.
49.8When, therefore, the money was paid out, the bank recorded as debtor Timotheus, who had requested the loan, but made a memorandum in the name of Antimachus, to whom Timotheus had ordered the money to be paid, and also named Autonomus, whom Antimachus had sent to the bank to receive the money, the amount being one thousand three hundred and fifty-one drachmae two obols. The first loan, then, which Timotheus contracted at the time of his going to sea, when he was serving as general the second time, was for this amount.
49.9Again, when you had removed him from his command as general because he failed to sail round the Peloponnesus, and he had been given over to the popular assembly for trial under a very heavy charge, when he was being prosecuted by Callistratus and Iphicrates, note men of power both in action and in speech, and they and their fellow-pleaders so influenced your minds by their accusations against him
49.10that you condemned and put to death Antimachus, his treasurer and a man most devoted to him,—yes, and confiscated his property; while Timotheus himself, thanks to the intercession of all his friends and relatives, and also of Alcetas and Jason, note who were allies of yours, you were reluctantly induced to pardon, but you deposed him from his command;—
49.11such were the charges under which he lay, and he was in desperate need of money. For all his property had been mortgaged, pillars had been set up on it, and other people were in control. His farm in the plain had been taken over as security by the son of Eumelidas; the rest of his property was mortgaged, for seven minae each, to the sixty trierarchs who set out on the voyage with him, which money he as admiral had forced them to distribute among their crews for maintenance.
49.12When he was deposed, he reported in the account which he rendered, that he had at that time himself given those seven minae for the ships from the military fund, but, fearing lest the trierarchs should give evidence against him and he should be convicted of lying, he borrowed privately from each one of them seven minae, and gave them a mortgage on his property. Yet he is now seeking to rob them of this money, and he has dug up the pillars.
49.13He was hard pressed on every side, his life was in extreme danger because of the gravity of the misfortunes which had befallen the state, the army in Calaureia note had been broken up for want of pay, the allies around Peloponnesus were being besieged by the Lacedaemonians, Iphicrates and Callistratus were accusing him of being responsible for the present disaster, and, furthermore, those who came from the army were reporting before the assembly the distress and need that existed, and at the same time individuals kept receiving word from their relatives and friends telling of their plight. These things you all heard in the popular assembly at that time, and you remember how each man of you felt toward him; you are not without knowledge of what people were saying.
| Demosthenes, Speeches (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose; rhetoric] [word count] [lemma count] [Dem.]. | ||
| <<Dem. 49.1 | Dem. 49.6 (Greek) | >>Dem. 49.18 |
