Trapeziticus

Besides this, men of the jury, he was of opinion that if I attempted to remain here, I should be handed over by Athens to Satyrus, and if I should go anywhere else, he would be indifferent to my complaints, and if I should sail to the Pontus, I should be put to death along with my father; it was on the strength of these calculations that Pasion decided to defraud me of my money. And although to me he pretended that for the moment he was short of funds and would not be able to repay me, yet when I, wishing to ascertain exactly the truth, sent Philomelus and Menexenus to him to demand my property, he denied to them that he had anything belonging to me.

Thus beset on every side by misfortunes so dire, what, think you, was my state of mind? If I kept silent I should be defrauded of my money by Pasion here; if I should make this complaint, I was none the more likely to recover it and I should bring myself and my father into the greatest disrepute with Satyrus. The wisest course, therefore, as I thought, was to keep silent.

After this, men of the jury, messengers arrived with the news that my father had been released and that Satyrus was so repentant of all that had occurred that he had bestowed upon my father pledges of his confidence of the most sweeping kind, and had given him authority even greater than he formerly possessed and had chosen my sister as his son's wife. When Pasion learned this and understood that I would now bring action openly about my property, he spirited away his slave Cittus, who had knowledge of our financial transactions.

And when I went to him and demanded the surrender of Cittus, because I believed that this slave could furnish the clearest proof of my claim, Pasion made the most outrageous charge, that I and Menexenus had bribed and corrupted Cittus as he sat at his banking-table and received six talents of silver from him. And that there might be neither examination nor testimony under torture on these matters, he asserted that it was we who had spirited away the slave and had brought a counter-charge against himself with a demand that this slave, whom we ourselves had spirited away, be produced. And while he was making this plea and protesting and weeping, he dragged me before the Polemarch[*](The Polemarch was one of the nine archons of Athens. He had supervision of the affairs of foreigners and resident-aliens.) with a demand for bondsmen, and he did not release me until I had furnished bondsmen in the sum of six talents. Please summon for me witnesses to these facts.

Witnesses