Apollodorus Against Timotheus

The defendant himself practically admitted before the arbitrator that my father paid Philip the thousand drachmae; but he declared that it was not to him (Timotheus) that my father lent the money, but to the Boeotian admiral, who, he alleges, gave some copper as security for the sum. However, that in this he was not stating the truth, but that he borrowed the money himself and is seeking to avoid payment, I shall prove to you, when I shall have informed you in detail regarding his other debts also.

In the month Maimacterion[*](Maimacterion corresponds to the latter half of November and the prior half of December.) in the archonship of Asteius,[*](The archonship of Asteius falls in 373-372 B.C.) Alcetas and Jason came to visit Timotheus to be present at his trial and give him their support, and they arrived at his house in Peiraeus in the Hippodameia[*](This was an agora built by the architect Hippodamus.) when it was already evening. Being at a loss how to entertain them, he sent his body servant Aeschrion to my father and bade him ask for the loan of some bedding and cloaks and two silver bowls and to borrow a mina of silver.

And my father, hearing from Aeschrion, the body-servant of the defendant, that they had arrived and the urgent need for which the request was made, both supplied the objects for which the slave had come and lent the mina of silver which he asked to borrow. Well, when he had been acquitted of the charge, the defendant found himself in sore straits for money to pay his private debts and the taxes to the state, and my father, seeing this, did not venture to demand repayment of the money at once;

for, while he did not think that Timotheus would defraud him when he had the means to pay, he did not himself see any way to exact payment from him when he was without means. So, after the departure of Alcetas and Jason, Aeschrion, the defendant’s body-servant, brought back the bedding and the cloaks, but he did not return the two bowls, for which he had asked at the time he borrowed the bedding and the mina of silver., when Alcetas and Jason arrived at the defendant’s house.

Then, when he was about to leave the country to take service with the king, and had arranged to sail as the king’s general to carry on the Egyptian war, in order that he might not have to submit an account and vouchers for his military administration here, he sent for my father to come to the Paralion,[*](The monument in the Peiraeus of the Attic hero Paralus.) thanked him for his former services to him,

and, introducing to him Philondas, a Megarian by birth, but one who resided as an alien at Athens,—a man who at that time was loyally devoted to the defendant and was employed in his service—he begged my father, that when Philonidas (whom he then introduced to him) should come back from Macedonia bringing some timber, which had been given to the defendant by Amyntas,[*](Amyntas was king of Macedonia.) he would supply him with money for the freight of the timber, and let him deliver the timber to the defendant’s house in Peiraeus; for he declared the timber belonged to him.

At the same time in preferring this request, he made statements which are quite inconsistent with his present actions. For he said that even if he should not obtain what he asked of my father, he would not be angry, as another might who failed to obtain what he wanted, but would show his gratitude, if he should ever find himself able to do so, for the services which my father had rendered him at his request. On hearing this my father was pleased at his words and commended him for remembering the favors shown him, and promised to do all that he asked.

Timotheus, then, after this set sail to join the king’s generals, but Philondas, to whom he had presented my father as one who would pay the freight, when he should come back with the timber, set out on his journey to Macedonia. The time was about the month Thargelion,[*](Thargelion corresponds to the latter half of May and the prior half of June.) in the archonship of Asteius.

In the following year Philondas came back from Macedonia, bringing the timber, while Timotheus was absent in the king’s service. He approached my father and asked him to furnish the freight for the timber, in order that he might settle with the shipowner, as Timotheus had begged my father to do, when he was about to sail and had introduced Philondas to him. So my father took him to the bank and ordered Phormio to pay him the freight of the timber, one thousand seven hundred and fifty drachmae.

And Phormio counted out the money, and set down Timotheus as owing it (for it was he who had asked my father to furnish the freight for the timber, and the timber was his), and he wrote a memorandum of the purpose for which the money was received, and the name of the person who received it. The date of the transaction was the archonship of Alcisthenes,[*](The archonship of Alcisthenes falls in 372-371 B.C.) the year after Timotheus set sail to take service with the king.

About the same time Timosthenes of Aegilia[*](Aegilia was a deme of the tribe Antiochis.) also arrived home from a journey abroad which he had made on private business. Timosthenes was a friend and partner of Phormio, and when he set sail he had given to Phormio to put away for him along with other articles two bowls of Lycian workmanship. By chance the boy, not knowing that these bowls were the property of someone else, gave them to Aeschrion, the body-servant of the defendant, when he was sent to my father by Timotheus and requested the bedding and the cloaks and the bowls, and borrowed the mina of silver at the time when Alcetas and Jason came to the defendant’s house.

When Timosthenes reached home and asked for the return of the bowls, Timotheus being still abroad in the king’s service, my father persuaded him to accept the value of the bowls, as much as they were worth by weight, namely two hundred and thirty-seven drachmae. So he paid to Timosthenes the value of the bowls and entered on his books the defendant as owing what he paid to Timosthenes for the bowls in addition to the rest of the debt which the defendant owed him.

To prove that all these statements of mine are true the clerk shall read you the depositions which bear upon them; first, that of those who were at that time clerks in the bank and paid the money from its funds to the persons to whom Timotheus bade them pay it, and then that of the man who received the price of the bowls.

The Depositions

You have learned, then, from the depositions which have just been read, that I am telling you nothing but the truth regarding the matters which I mentioned. And that the defendant himself admits that the timber brought by Philondas was delivered to his house in the Peiraeus,—this, too, is proved by the deposition which will be read to you.

The Deposition

That the timber, then, which Philondas brought was the property of the defendant I have his own testimony to prove; for he admitted before the arbitrator that it was delivered to his house in Peiraeus, as those who heard him have testified. But besides this I shall try to prove to you by circumstantial evidence that I am telling the truth.

For do you suppose, men of the jury, that, if the timber had not been the property of Timotheus, and if he had not begged my father—at the time he introduced Philondas to him, when he was about to set sail to join the king’s generals—to provide the freight, my father would ever have allowed Philondas to carry the timber away from the harbor, seeing that it was pledeged as security to him for the freight, and would not rather have set one of his servants to keep watch and to receive the price as the timber was sold, until he had recovered his money, if we suppose that the timber was the property of Philondas and was brought in for the sake of trade?

Then, besides this, does it seem to anyone likely, that if Timotheus had not bidden my father to supply the freight for the timber given to him by Amyntas, my father would have trusted Philondas, and have suffered him to deliver the timber to the defendant’s house? Or, how is it possible that Philondas, as is stated by the defendant, brought in the timber for the sake of trade, and yet that the defendant on his return used this timber for the building of his house?

And observe this also, that many worthy citizens were friends of the defendant and looked after his affairs while Timotheus was abroad in the service of the king, and yet not one of these has dared to testify on his behalf either that Philondas did not receive from the bank the freight of the timber, or that, having received it, he paid it back; or, again, that any one of them settled for the freight of the timber which Philondas brought and which had been given to the defendant by Amyntas. For they deem it a matter of higher import to themselves to preserve their character as worthy and honorable men than to do a favor to Timotheus by giving false testimony.

But they declared that they would not testify to the truth against him; for they said he was their friend. Since, then, no one of those who are his friends, and who looked after his affairs when he was abroad in the service of the king, has ventured to testify either that Philondas did not receive from the bank the freight for the timber, or that any one of them paid it, is it not reasonable that you should believe that I am speaking the truth?

Surely he will not venture to say this, that anyone other than my father paid the freight for the timber which Philondas brought. If he does insist upon this argument, demand of him that he produce before you the deposition of the person who paid the freight for the timber. For it is admitted that he was himself abroad in the king’s service, and as for Philondas, whom he sent to fetch the timber and whom he introduced to my father—you found on your return from the king’s service, Timotheus, that he was dead.

It must be, then, that some other of your relatives and friends, whom you left to look after your affairs when you were about to go abroad, knows from what source Philondas got the freight for the timber and paid the shipowner, if you deny that you introduced my father to Philondas, or that Philondas got the freight for the timber from my father.