Apollodorus Against Timotheus

Ah but, he will perhaps say, my father ought to have demanded the return of the bowls from him. But my father saw in what straits you were, Timotheus. He trusted you in regard to the rest of your debt, and believed that after your return to Athens he would recover his money from you, when you should be better off for funds. Was he, then, going to distrust you in the matter of the bowls? He promised at your request that he would provide the freight for the timber when you were sailing to take service with the king; was he, then, going to distrust you because of a couple of bowls? He did not demand of you that you pay the rest of the debt, because he saw that you were without funds. Was he, then, going to demand the bowls?

I wish now to speak about the challenge to an oath, which I tendered the defendant, and he tendered me. For after I had put an oath in the evidence-box, he thought that, by taking an oath himself, he could be quit of the affair. And, if I had not known that he had flagrantly perjured himself in many solemn oaths both to states and to individuals, I should have allowed him to take the oath; but as it was, seeing that I had witnesses to prove that the persons appointed by him had in fact received the money from the bank, and conclusive circumstantial evidence as well, it seemed to me a monstrous thing to give an oath to one who would not only take no care to swear honestly, but who, when it was a question of gain, has not spared even temples.

The specific instances of the perjuries which he has committed without scruple would make a long story; but I will call to your minds the most flagrant instances and those of which you are all well aware. You know that he swore in the assembly, imprecating destruction upon himself and dedicating his property to sacred uses, if he should fail to indict Iphicrates as a usurper of the rights of citizenship. Yet, although he had sworn and promised this in the assembly, no long time afterwards, in order to serve his own interests, he gave his daughter in marraige to the son of Iphicrates.