Against Lacritus

I, however, am a merchant, and you are the brother and heir of a merchant, who got from me money for a mercantile venture. Before whom, then, should this suit be entered? Tell me, Lacritus; only say what is just and according to law. But there lives no man clever enough to be able to say anything that is just in connection with a case like yours.

It is not in these matters only, men of the jury, that I have suffered outrageous wrongs at the hands of this man Lacritus; for, besides being defrauded of my money, I should have been brought into the gravest danger, so far as his power went, if the agreement made with these men had not come to my aid by bearing witness that I lent the money for a voyage to Pontus and back to Athens. For you know, men of the jury, how severe the law is, if any Athenian transports corn to any other port than the port of Athens, or lends money for use in any market save that of Athens; you know what penalties there are in such cases, and how severe and to be dreaded they are.

However, read them the law itself, that they may have more exact information.

The Law

It shall be unlawful for any Athenian or any alien residing at Athens or for any person over whom they have control, to lend money on any vessel which is not going to bring to Athens grain or the other articles specifically mentioned.[*](The reader does not quote the law in full, but abridges it, and adds this clause as a sort of et cetera.) And if any man lends out money contrary to this decree, information and an account of the money shall be laid before the harbor-masters in the same manner as is provided in regard to the ship and the grain. And he shall have no right to bring action for the money which he has lent for a voyage to any other place than to Athens, and no magistrate shall bring any such suit to trial.

The law, men of the jury, is thus severe. But these men, the most abominable of humankind, although it stands expressly written in the agreement that the money should come back to Athens, allowed what they borrowed from us at Athens to be conveyed to Chios. For when the Phaselite shipowner wanted to borrow other money in Pontus from a certain Chian, and the Chian declared he would not lend it unless he should receive as security all the goods which the shipowner had on board or in his keeping, and unless those who had made the former loan should consent to this, these men nevertheless permitted these goods of ours to become security for the Chian, and put them all into his control.

On these terms they sailed back from Pontus with the Phaselite shipowner and the Chian who had made the loan, and put into Thieves’ Harbor, without anchoring in your port. And now, men of the jury, money which was lent for a voyage from Athens to Pontus and back again from Pontus to Athens has been brought to Chios by these men.

It is, therefore, just as I assumed at the beginning of my speech—you are wronged no less than we who lent the money. Consider, men of the jury, how the wrong touches you also. When a man seeks to set himself above your laws, and makes of no effect nautical agreements, but does away with them, and has sent away to Chios money lent here on our exchange, is it not clear that such a man wrongs you as well as us?

My words, men of the jury, are addressed to these people only, for it was to them that I lent the money. It will remain for them to deal with that Phaselite shipowner, their own countryman, to whom they say they lent the money unknown to us and contrary to the agreement. For we do not know what transactions were entered into by them with their countryman; but they know themselves.

This we hold to be a just course; and we beg you, men of the jury, to come to the aid of us who are being wronged, and to punish those who devise evil and resort to sophistries, as these men do. If you do this, you will be found to have decided in accordance with your own interests, and will rid yourselves of all the rascalities of unprincipled men, which certain ones of them are employing in regard to maritime contracts.