Nicobulus Against Pantaenetus (26-30)

What was it, then, that forced him to make this statement? I fancy that Evergus, at the time he made the mistakes[*] for which he has paid the penalty, being on friendly terms with me and well known, took the slave from my house and stationed him at his own works to keep guard. If, then, he had written the truth, it would have been ridiculous. For, if Evergus stationed the slave there, wherein do I wrong you? It was to avoid this absurdity that he was compelled to write as he did, that his charge might be directed against me.

Read what follows.

The Complaint

And then having persuaded my slaves to sit in the foundry[*] to my prejudice.

This is out-and-out impudence. Not only from my challenging him to give up these slaves for torture and from his refusing to do so, but from every circumstance of the case its falsehood is manifest. Why, pray, should I have induced them to do this? That, forsooth, I might get possession of them. But when the option was given me either to keep the property or to recover my money, I chose to recover my money; and of this you have heard the evidence.

Nevertheless, read the challenge.

The Challenge

Although he did not accept the challenge, but declined it, see what a charge he makes immediately thereafter.Read what comes next.

The Complaint

And having reduced the silver-ore which my slaves had dug, and keeping the silver smelted from that ore.

Again, how could this have been done by me when I was not here?—things, too, for which you won a judgement against Evergus?

Read the further charges.

The Complaint

And having sold my mining property and the slaves, contrary to the agreement which he had made with me.

Stop reading. This far outdoes all the rest. For in the first place he says, contrary to the agreement which he had made with me. What agreement is this? We leased our own property to this man, at a rent equal to the interest on the loan; that was all. It was Mnesicles who sold it to us, in the presence of the plaintiff and at his request.

Afterwards in the same way we sold the property to others on the same terms upon which we had ourselves bought it, and the plaintiff not only urged but actually implored us to do so; for no one was willing to accept him as the vendor. What, then, does the agreement to lease it have to do with the matter? Why, most worthless of men, did you insert that clause?

However, to prove that we resold the property at your request, and on the same terms as those upon which we ourselves bought it, read the deposition.

The Deposition