Apollodorus Against Polycles

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;