Trapeziticus

So then, the fact that we made the agreement, not as Pasion will try to explain, but as I have related to you, I think has been sufficiently established. And it should not occasion surprise, men of the jury, that he falsified the memorandum, not only for the reason that there have been numerous frauds of such nature, but because some of Pasion's friends have been guilty of conduct far worse. For instance, is there anyone who is ignorant that Pythodorus, called “the shop-keeper,”[*](Cf. Dem. 54.7.) whose words and acts are all in Pasion's interest, last year opened the voting-urns[*](These contained the names of those who had been nominated as possible judges of the dramatic contests of the festival of Dionysus.) and removed the ballots naming the judges which had been cast by the Council?

And yet when a man who, for petty gain and at the peril of his life, has the effrontery to open secretly the urns that had been stamped by the prytanes[*](The Prytanes (Presidents), a committee of 50, one-tenth part of the Council of 500, managed for one-tenth of the year the affairs of the Council and of the Assembly.) and sealed by the choregi,[*](The Choregi were well-to-do Athenians, who were chosen to defray the costs of bringing out the choruses in the dramatic festivals.) urns that were guarded by the treasurers and kept on the Acropolis, why should there be surprise that men, who hoped to make so great a profit, falsified an insignificant written agreement in the possession of a foreigner, gaining their ends either by the bribery of his slaves or by some other means in their power? On this point, however, I do not know what more I need say.