On the Property of Aristophanes: Against the Treasury

I claim, therefore, gentlemen of the jury, that after having produced such an abundance of weighty proofs we ought not to be unjustly ruined. I have been told by my father and other elderly people that you have had similar experiences in the past of being deceived in the fortunes of many men who were supposed to be wealthy while they lived, but whose death showed your supposition to be wide of the mark.

For example, Ischomachus during his life was considered by everyone to own more than seventy talents, as I am told: his two sons, on his death, had less than ten talents to divide between them. Stephanus, son of Thallus, was reported to own more than fifty talents; but when he died his fortune was found to be about eleven talents.

Again, the estate of Nicias was expected to be not less than a hundred talents,— most of it in his house; but when Niceratus[*](Son of Nicias; cf. Lys. 18, On the Confession of the Property of the brother of Nicias.) was dying, he said that he in his turn was not leaving any silver or gold, and the property that he left to his son is worth no more than fourteen talents.

Then Callias,[*](A wealthy patron of Sophists; cf. Plato, Protagoras.) son of Hipponicus, just after his father’s death, was thought to have more in his possession than any other Greek, and the story goes that his grandfather valued his own property at two hundred talents; yet his ratable property stands today at less than two talents. And you all know how Cleophon[*](Cf. Lys. 13.7, note.) for many years had all the affairs of the State in his hands, and was expected to have got a great deal by his office; but when he died this money was nowhere to be found,