Against Aphobus I (21-25)

Again, if he alleges that the work was done, but that there was no market for goods manufactured, he ought at any rate to show that he has delivered to me these goods, and to produce witnesses in whose presence he delivered them. Seeing that he has done neither of these things, how can you doubt that he is keeping thirty minae, the two years’ income from the factory, since the business has so manifestly been carried on.

If, however, he shall make none of these statements, but shall assert that Milyas had charge of everything, how can you believe him, when he alleges that he himself made the disbursements amounting to more than five hundred drachmae, but that any profits which accrued are in the hands of Milyas? For my part, I think it likely that the very opposite is the case, supposing that Milyas actually did have charge of the work,—that he made the disbursements, and that Aphobus received the profits, if we may draw any conclusion from the general character and the shamelessness of the man.Take now and read these depositions to the jury.

The Depositions

These thirty minae, then, he has received from the factory, and the interest on them for eight years; and if one sets this down at the rate of a drachma only,[*] it will make thirty minae more. These sums he has himself embezzled, and, if they be added to the marriage-portion, the total is about four talents, principal and interest combined. Now I shall go on to show you what sums he has embezzled in conjunction with his co-trustees, and what sums he asserts were never left by my father at all.

First, regarding the twenty sofa-makers, given to my father as security for a debt of forty minae, whom my father certainly left behind him at his death, but of whom these men show not a trace—let me prove to you with what utter shamelessness and how openly they are seeking to cheat me of these. That these slaves were left by my father in the house they all admit, and that they brought him in an income of twelve minae every year. Yet these men report no receipts as having come in to my credit from them in ten years, and Aphobus reckons up a total expenditure on them of nearly a thousand drachmae. To such a pitch of effrontery has he come.

And these slaves themselves, upon whom he alleges that he has expended the money, they have never handed over to me. On the contrary, they tell the idlest tale imaginable, to the effect that the man who pledged the slaves to my father is the vilest sort of a fellow, who has left many friendly loans[*] unpaid, and who is overwhelmed with debt; and to prove this against him they have called a large number of witnesses. But as for the slaves—who got them; how they went out of the house; who took them away; or in what suit they lost them by judgement, they are unable to say.