Apollodorus Against Timotheus in the Matter of a Debt (58-61)

If, then, this would have been a strong piece of evidence for him to use before you, that, namely, he offered to deliver up Aeschrion, whom I declare to have been sent by the defendant and to have received the bowls from my father and to have borrowed the mina of silver, let it also be evidence for me to use before you, that knowing my claims to be true, he does not dare to deliver up Aeschrion for the torture.

Well, he will make the defence that he was listed in the books of the bank in the archonship of Alcisthenes as having received the freight of the timber and the price of the bowls, which my father paid to Timosthenes on his behalf, and that he was not at that time in the country, but was in the service of the king. About this I wish to give you accurate information, that you may understand clearly how the books of the bank are kept.

The defendant in the month Thargelion in the archonship of Asteius when he was about to sail to take service with the king, introduced Philondas to my father; and in the following year in the archonship of Alcisthenes, Philondas arrived bringing the timber from Macedonia and received the freight from my father, while Timotheus was abroad in the service of the king. Accordingly they entered the defendant as debtor at the time they paid the money, not at the time when, being in Athens, he had introduced Philondas to my father.

For, when he introduced him, the timber had not yet come, but Philondas was about to make the journey to fetch it; when, however, he came back, bringing the timber, the defendant was abroad, but Philondas received the freight for the timber according to the defendant’s orders, and the timber was delivered to the defendant’s house in Peiraeus. That Timotheus was not well provided with funds when he sailed from Athens is already known to all of you to whom his estate was mortgaged, and whom he is now seeking to defraud.

However, to prove that he borrowed money from some of our citizens without security, since he had no equivalent security to give, please read the deposition.

The Deposition