Source edition
Demosthenes. Orationes, Vol. II, Part 2. Rennie, W., editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1921.
Source data
Perseus Digital Library · CC BY-SA (per Perseus's terms)
Cloned and adapted by Humanitext, with ongoing edits.
Summary
This oration is delivered in an Athenian commercial court, where the speaker argues that he is not liable as a guarantor for a debt. The speaker accuses the opponent, Apaturius, of bringing an unlawful and unjust lawsuit against him. The dispute originates from a debt trouble between Apaturius and a man named Parmenon, in which the speaker intervened to settle their contracts and establish a private arbitration. However, Apaturius conspired with the arbitrator Aristocles to destroy the arbitration agreement and issued an unfair default judgment against Parmonon. In response, the speaker defends himself by presenting legal evidence, such as the one-year statute of limitations on guarantees and the fact that no claim was made against him for three years. Ultimately, he exposes the contradictions of his opponents and appeals to the jury that holding him responsible as a guarantor in the absence of any valid contract is entirely groundless.