But, as it was, instead of securing many witnesses to these acts you did everything you could that none should know, as though you were committing some crime! Again, had you been making payment to me, your creditor, in person, there would have been no need of witnesses, for you would have taken back the agreement and so got rid of the obligation; whereas in making payment, not to me, but to another on my behalf, and not at Athens but in Bosporus , when your agreement was deposited at Athens and with me, and when the man to whom you paid the money was mortal and about to undertake a voyage over such a stretch of sea, you called no one as a witness, whether slave or freeman. Yes, he says, for the agreement bade me pay the cash to the shipowner. This is best explained by assuming that the contract gave Phormio the right to pay the money to Lampis in Bosporus , if he did not ship a return cargo to Athens . But it did not prevent you from summoning witnesses, or from delivering the letters! The parties here present The reference is not wholly clear. It may be that others than Chrysippus and his partner had contributed to the sum lent to Phormio. drew up two agreements with you in the matter of the loan, showing that they greatly distrusted you, but you assert that without a single witness you paid the gold to the shipowner, although you well know that an agreement against yourself was deposited at Athens with my colleague here!