Unknown Pleader Against Apaturius (6-10)

The plaintiff and Parmeno came up to me on the exchange and spoke about money. It happened that the plaintiff owed forty minae on his ship, and his creditors were pressing him hard with demands for their money, and were about to board the ship and take possession of it, as his note was overdue. While he was in this embarrassment, Parmeno agreed to give him ten minae, and the plaintiff asked me to contribute thirty minae, charging that the creditors in their eagerness to secure the ship had slandered him on the exchange, that they might seize the ship by putting him in a position where he could not pay.

I happened to have no ready money in hand, but being acquainted with Heracleides, the banker, I persuaded him to lend the money, and to take me as surety. But when now the thirty minae had been procured, Parmeno happened to fall out with the plaintiff. However, seeing that he had agreed to furnish him with ten minae and had already given him three of them, he was compelled on account of the money he had given to pay the remainder as well.

Not wishing, however, for the reason given, to make the loan in his own name, he bade me to arrange it so that things should be as safe as possible for him. So I took over the seven minae from Parmeno, and having had transferred to myself the obligation for the three, which the plaintiff had already received from him, caused a bill of sale to be executed on the ship and the slaves until such time as he should repay me the ten minae, which he had received through me, and also the thirty for which he had made me his surety with the banker. In proof that my words are true, hear the depositions.

The Depositions

In this way, then, Apaturius here got rid of his creditors. Not long after this, the bank having failed, and Heracleides for a time having gone into hiding, the plaintiff schemed to send the slaves from Athens, and to remove the ship from the harbor. This was the cause of my first quarrel with him. For Parmeno, learning of the fact, laid hands on the slaves as they were being taken away, and prevented the sailing of the ship; then he sent for me, and told me of the affair.

When I heard him, thinking this fellow a most impious wretch because of his attempt, I set about considering how I might myself get free from my guaranty to the bank, and how the foreigner[*] might avoid the loss of the money he had lent this fellow through me. After stationing men to guard the ship I told the whole story to the sureties of the bank and turned the security over to them, telling them that the foreigner had a lien of ten minae on the ship. Having arranged this, I attached the slaves, in order that, if any shortage occurred, the deficiency might be made up by the proceeds of their sale.