Apollodorus Against Timotheus

And which one of our slaves was it who received it? For, if slaves brought it, he ought to have delivered them up for the torture, but if hired men, he ought to have demanded for the torture the slave of ours who received and weighed the copper; for, I fancy, neither would the one taking the copper in pledge accept it, nor the one offering it give it over, without weighing; nor was my father likely to carry the copper and weigh it himself, since he had slaves who were accustomed to receive the articles given as security for loans.

And I certainly wonder for what possible reason the Boeotian admiral should have given the copper to my father as security, if he owed a thousand drachmae to Philip. Was it that Philip would not have been glad to receive interest, if his money was lent safely and on security? or that Philip had no money? So, what need was there for the Boeotian admiral to ask my father to lend the thousand drachmae and pay Philip, rather than give the copper as security to Philip?

But, men of the jury, the copper was not given as security, nor did the Boeotian admiral borrow the thousand drachmae from my father, but this man Timotheus borrowed them, being in great distress; and the urgent need, to meet which he used the money, I have told you. But instead of evincing gratitude for the confidence shown him and the loan which he received from my father, he thinks it proper to defraud us, if he can, even of the principal.

Now, as to the bowls and the mina of silver, which he borrowed from my father when he sent his bodyservant Aeschrion to my father in the night, I asked him before the arbitrator if Aeschrion was still a slave, and demanded that he be put to the test in his hide.[*](That is, under the torture; in this case apparently scourging.) He answered that Aeschrion was free, so I desisted from my demand; but I required him to put in a deposition made by Aeschrion as being a free man.

He, however, neither provided a deposition from Aeschrion, as being free, nor would he deliver him up as a slave that proof might be had from his body; for he was afraid that, if he produced a deposition from him as being free, I should bring suit for false testimony, and after proving that Aeschrion had testified falsely, should proceed against Timotheus himself for subornation, as the law provides; and if, again, he should deliver him up for the torture, he was afraid that Aeschrion would state the truth against him.

And yet it was a fine opportunity for him, if he was unable to produce witnesses concerning the other receipts of money, to prove this at any rate by the words of Aeschrion—that the bowls and the mina of silver were not received, and that Aeschrion was not sent by him to my father; and then to use this as evidence to you that I am uttering falsehoods in regard to my other claims upon him, seeing that his slave, whom I declare to have received the bowls and the mina of silver, was proved by the torture not to have received them.

If, then, this would have been a strong piece of evidence for him to use before you, that, namely, he offered to deliver up Aeschrion, whom I declare to have been sent by the defendant and to have received the bowls from my father and to have borrowed the mina of silver, let it also be evidence for me to use before you, that knowing my claims to be true, he does not dare to deliver up Aeschrion for the torture.

Well, he will make the defence that he was listed in the books of the bank in the archonship of Alcisthenes as having received the freight of the timber and the price of the bowls, which my father paid to Timosthenes on his behalf, and that he was not at that time in the country, but was in the service of the king. About this I wish to give you accurate information, that you may understand clearly how the books of the bank are kept.

The defendant in the month Thargelion in the archonship of Asteius when he was about to sail to take service with the king, introduced Philondas to my father; and in the following year in the archonship of Alcisthenes, Philondas arrived bringing the timber from Macedonia and received the freight from my father, while Timotheus was abroad in the service of the king. Accordingly they entered the defendant as debtor at the time they paid the money, not at the time when, being in Athens, he had introduced Philondas to my father.