The law, men of Athens, ordains that actions for merchants and shipowners shall be before the ThesmothetaeThe Thesmothetae were the six archons (other than the Eponymus, the Basileus, and the Polemarch), and were empowered to administer justice in cases not specifically within the province of any other magistrate. if they have been in any way wronged in the market either in connection with a voyage from Athens to any point, or from some other port to Athens; and it fixes imprisonment as the penalty for wrongdoers until such time as they shall have paid the amount adjudged against them, so that no one may lightly do wrong to any merchant.

To those, however, who are brought into court in cases where no contract has been made, the law gives the right to have recourse to a special plea, that no one may bring a baseless or malicious suit, but that actions may be confined to those among the merchants and shipowners who are really wronged. Many defendants in mercantile suits have before now entered special pleas in accordance with this law, and have come before you and proved that their adversaries were making unjust charges and bringing baseless suits under pretence of being engaged in commerce.