Against Evergus and Mnesibulus

That it was absolutely necessary, therefore, for me to take over the names of those indebted to the state, you have heard from the law and the decrees; and that I took them over from the magistrate, the one who delivered them to me has testified. So, then, the first question for you to consider at the outset, men of the jury, is this, whether the wrongdoer was I, who was compelled to recover from Theophemus what he owed, or Theophemus, who had long owed the equipment to the state and refused to give it back.

For if you look at each matter severally, you will find that Theophemus was wholly in the wrong, and that this is not merely a statement of mine but a fact decided by vote of the senate and the court. For when I had received his name from the magistrate, I approached him and first demanded the ship’s equipment; when he refused to give it back on my making this statement, I subsequently fell in with him near the Hermes[*](This Hermes, dedicated by the nine archons in 493-492, stood near the Ἀστικὸς Πυλών, or City Gate, of the north fortification wall of the Peiraeus. See Judeich, Topographie von Athen 2, pp. 152 f.) which stands by the little gate and summoned him before the despatching board and the overseers of the dockyards; for it was they who at that time brought into court suits regarding ship’s equipments.