Against Aphobus I (16-20)

Yet, if it be shown that he made these admissions before Demochares and the others who were present; that he received from Demophon and Therippides the money accruing from the sale of the slaves in part settlement of the marriage portion; that he gave to his co-trustees a written acknowledgement that he had received the portion; and that he occupied the house immediately after the death of my father; will it not be clear—the matter being admitted by everybody—that he has received the portion, the eighty minae, and that his denial of having received it is a piece of shameless impudence.

To prove that what I say is true, take and read the depositions.

The Depositions

The dowry, then, he got in this way, and kept. But in the event of his not marrying my mother the law declares that he owes me the amount of the dowry with interest at nine obols a month.[*] However, I set it down at a drachma a month only. This comes, if one adds the principle and the interest for ten years, to about three talents.

This money I have thus shown you that he received and that he confessed in the presence of a host of witnesses that he had it. Then he has also in his possession thirty minae besides, which he received as the revenue from the factory, and of which he has tried to defraud me in the most shameless manner possible. My father left me a revenue of thirty minae accruing from the factory; and after the sale by these men of one-half of the slaves, I should receive the proportionate sum of fifteen minae.

Therippides, however, who had charge of the slaves for seven years, has submitted an account of eleven minae a year, four minae a year less than it should have been; and the defendant who had charge of the business at the first for two years shows no profit whatever, but says sometimes that the factory was idle, and sometimes that he was not himself the manager, but that the foreman, Milyas, a freedman of ours, had charge of it, and that I should look for an accounting from him. If he persists even now in making any of these statements he will easily be convicted of falsehood.

If he declares that the factory was idle, yet he has himself rendered an account of money expended, not on provisions for the men, but for their work—ivory for the trade, swordhandles, and other supplies—indicating that the workmen were busy. Furthermore, he charges me with money which he has paid to Therippides for the hire of three slaves of his who were in my factory. Yet if no work was being done, Therippides should have received no pay, nor should these expenditures have been charged to me.