Apollodorus Against Polycles

In suits of this nature, men of the jury, it is fitting that those who are to render a decision, as well as the litigants themselves, should give the closest attention. For the suit is not a private one concerning Polycles and myself alone, but it touches also the interests of the state as well. In cases where the charges indeed are of a private nature, but the injury is public, it is surely fitting that you should listen and decide aright. If I had come before you quarrelling with Polycles about a contract of some other sort, the contest would have concerned Polycles and myself alone; but as it is, the question concerns the succession to a ship, and extra trierarchal expenses for five months and six days, and it concerns also the laws, whether they are to be in force, or not.

It seems to me, therefore, to be necessary to explain all the facts to you from the beginning. And by the gods, men of the jury, I beg you not to think that I am talking idly, if I set forth at some length what I have expended and what I have done, to show that my several services were rendered opportunely, and that they were helpful to the state. If anyone is able to show that I am uttering falsehoods, let him get up in the time allotted to me and disprove whatever statement I may make to you which he holds to be false. But if my statements are true, and no one would contradict them save the defendant, I make of you all a request that is fair.

All you who were in the army and were present in the campaign, call to mind and tell to those who sit by you my own efforts and the troubles and distresses in which the state was involved at that crisis, in order that you may know from this evidence what manner of man I am in carrying out the orders you lay upon me. And all of you who stayed at home, listen to me in silence, while I set forth before you all the facts, and produce in support of every statement that I make the laws and decrees both of the senate and the people, and the testimony of witnesses.

On the twenty-fourth day of the month Metageitnion[*]( Metageitnion corresponds to the latter half of August and the prior half of September.) in the archonship of Molon,[*](The archonship of Molon falls in 362 B.C.) when an assembly had been held and tidings of many serious events had been brought before you, you voted that the trierarchs (of whom I was one) should launch their ships. It is not necessary for me to go into details regarding the crisis which had at that time befallen the state; you of yourselves know that Tenos[*]( Tenos, one of the Cyclades islands in the Aegean Sea, had been captured by the fleet on Alexander of Pherae, who at this time was master of Thessaly.) had been seized by Alexander, and its people had been reduced to slavery;

that Miltocythes[*]( Miltocythes was a vassal of Cotys, king of the Odrysae in Thrace, a former friend, but now an enemy of Athens.) had revolted from Cotys, and had sent ambassadors regarding an alliance, begging you to send troops to his aid, and offering to restore the Chersonesus; that the Proconnesians,[*]( Proconnesus, an island on the Propontis (Sea of Marmora).) your allies, were requesting you in the assembly to come to their aid, stating that the Cyzicenes[*](Cyzicus, a town on the southern shore of the Propontis.) were pressing them hard in war by both land and sea, and imploring you not to look idly on while they perished.

When you heard all these tidings at that time in the assembly from both the speakers themselves and those who supported them; when furthermore the merchants and shipowners were about to sail out of the Pontus, and the Byzantines and Calchedonians[*](Calchedon, a town across the Bosporus from Byzantium.) and Cyzicenes were forcing their ships to put in to their ports because of the scarcity of grain in their own countries; seeing also that the price of grain was advancing in the Peiraeus, and that there was not very much to be bought, you voted that the trierarchs should launch their ships and bring them up to the pier, and that the members of the senate and the demarchs should make out lists of the demesmen and reports of available seamen, and that the armament should be despatched at once, and aid sent to the various regions. And this decree, proposed by Aristophon, was passed, as follows:

The Decree

The decree, then, you have heard, men of the jury. For my own part, when the sailors listed by the demesmen did not appear, save a very few, and these incompetent, I dismissed them; and having mortgaged my property and borrowed money, I was the first to man my ship, hiring the best sailors possible by giving to each man large bonuses and advance payments. More than that, I furnished the ship with equipment wholly my own, taking nothing from the public stores, and I made everything as beautiful and magnificent as possible, outdoing all the other trierarchs. As for rowers, I hired the best that could be had.

And not only did I defray the trierarchal expenses, which at that time were so very heavy, but I also paid in advance no small part of the taxes which you had ordered to be collected for the cost of the expedition. For when you had voted that the members of the senate on behalf of the demesmen should report the names of those who were to pay taxes in advance, both of those who were members of the demes and those who owned property in them, my name was reported from three demes, as my property was in land.

Of these I was the first to pay my taxes in advance, nor did I seek to get myself excused either on the ground that I was serving as trierarch and could not defray the costs of two public services at once, or that the laws did not permit such a thing. And I have never recovered the money which I advanced, because at the time I was abroad in your service as trierarch, and afterwards, when I returned, I found that the money from those who had resources had already been gathered in by others, and that those who were left had nothing.

To prove that I am stating the truth to you in this, the clerk shall read you the depositions covering these matters, those of the persons who at that time collected the military supplies and of the despatching board; also the record of the pay which I gave out every month to the rowers and the marines, receiving from the generals subsistence-money alone, except pay for two months only in a period of a year and five months also a list of the sailors who were hired, and how much money each of them received; to the end that from this evidence you may know how generous I was and why the defendant was unwilling to take over the ship from me when the term of my trierarchy had expired.

The Depositions

The proof, then, that I am uttering no falsehoods in regard to the matters which I have mentioned, you have learned, men of the jury, from the reading of the depositions. But, further, you will all agree with me that what I am about to say is true. It is admitted that the usefulness of a ship is done away with, first, if the men are not paid, and secondly, if she put into the Peiraeus before her expedition is finished; for in that case there is a great deal of desertion, and those of the sailors who remain are unwilling to embark again, unless additional money is given them for their household expenses. Both of these things happened to me, men of the jury, so that my trierarchy became the more costly.

For I received no pay from the general for the space of eight months, and I sailed home to Peiraeus with the ambassadors because my ship was the fastest sailer, and again, when I was ordered by the people to take Menon the general to the Hellespont to replace Autocles, who had been removed from his command, I set sail on short notice from Athens. In the place of the seamen who had deserted I hired others, giving them large bonuses and advance payments, and I gave to those of the original sailors who stayed with me something to leave behind for the maintenance of their households in addition to what they had before;

for I was well aware of the need they felt, and how it pressed upon each one, and I was myself embarrassed for funds as, by Zeus and Apollo, no one could believe, who had not accurately followed the course of my affairs. However, I mortgaged my farm to Thrasylochus and Archeneüs, and having borrowed thirty minae from them and distributed the money among the crew, I put to sea, that no part of the people’s orders might fail to be carried out, as far as it depended on me. And the people, hearing of this, gave me a vote of thanks, and invited me to dine in the Prytaneum.

To prove that I am speaking the truth in this, the clerk shall read you the deposition dealing with these facts, and the decree of the people.

The Deposition. The Decree

Then, when we came to the Hellespont, and the term of my trierarchy had expired, and no pay had been given to the soldiers except for two months when another general, Timomachus, had come—though even he brought to the fleet no new trierarchs to relieve those in service,—many of my crew became discouraged and went off, deserting the ship, some to the mainland to take military service, and some to the fleet of the Thasians,[*]( Thasos, a large island in the nothern Aegean.) and Maronites,[*]( Maroneia, a town on the southern coast of Thrace.) won over by the promise of high pay and receiving substantial sums in advance.

They saw also that my resources were by now exhausted, that the state was neglectful of them, that our allies were in need, and the generals not to be depended on, and that they had been deceived by the words of many of them; and they knew that the term of my trierarchy had expired and that their voyage was not to be homeward and that no successor had arrived to take command from whom they could expect any relief. For the more ambitious I had been to man my ship with good rowers, by so much was the desertion from me greater than from the other trierarchs.

For the others had this advantage at any rate, that the sailors who had come to their ships drawn from the official lists, stayed with them in order to make sure of their return home when the general should discharge them; whereas mine, trusting in their skill as able rowers, went off wherever they were likely to be re-employed at the highest wages, thinking more of their gain for the immediate present than of the danger impending over them, if they should ever be caught by me.

Consequently when my affairs were in the condition which I have described, and at the same time I was ordered by the general, Timomachus, to sail to Hieron[*](Hieron was on the eastern shore of the Cimmerian Bosporus (the straight between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azof).) to convoy the grain, though he provided no pay (word had been brought that the Byzantines and the Calchedonians were again bringing the ships into port and forcing them to unload their grain), I borrowed money from Archidemus of Anaphlystus,[*]( Anaphlystus, a deme of the tribe Antiochis.) fifteen minae at interest, and I secured from Nicippus, the shipowner, who happened to be in Sestus,[*]( Sestus, also a town on the Hellespont.) eight hundred drachmae, as a maritime loan at 12 1/2 per cent, on condition that I should pay him principal and interest when the ship should get safely back to Athens.

Further, I sent Euctemon, the pentecontarch,[*]( The pentecontarch was properly an under-officer in charge of a tier of fifty oarsmen.) to Lampsacus,[*]( Lampsacus, a town on the Hellespont.) giving him money and letters to friends of my father, and bade him hire for me the best sailors he could. I myself stayed in Sestus and gave some money—all I had—to the old sailors who stayed with me, since the term of my trierarchy had expired, and I secured also some other sailors at full pay, while the general was making ready for his voyage to Hieron.

But when Euctemon came back from Lampsacus, bringing the sailors whom he had hired, and the general gave the word for us to put to sea, it happened that Euctemon suddenly fell sick, and was in a very serious condition. I, therefore, gave him his pay, adding money for his journey, and sent him home; while I secured another pentecontarch and put out to sea to convoy the grain, and I stayed there forty-five days, until the vessels sailed out from Pontus after the rising of Arcturus.[*](The rising of Arcturus falls at the time of the autumnal equinox.)

When I arrived at Sestus, I expected to sail for home, as my term of service had expired, and I had already served two months beyond it and no successor had arrived to take over the ship. The general, Timomachus, however,—for an embassy from the Maronites had come to him, begging him to convoy their grain ships—ordered us trierarchs to make cables fast to the ships and tow them to Maroneia—a long voyage across the open sea.