Source edition
Demosthenes. Orationes, Vol. III. Rennie, W., editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1931.
Source data
Perseus Digital Library · CC BY-SA (per Perseus's terms)
Cloned and adapted by Humanitext, with ongoing edits.
Summary
This work is a courtroom oration in which Apollodorus, the son of the banker Pasion, sues the prominent Athenian general Timotheus to recover substantial unpaid debts. Apollodorus fiercely denounces Timotheus for denying his financial obligations and showing ingratitude toward the generous assistance Pasion provided when the general was in severe political and financial distress. Throughout the speech, the plaintiff meticulously reconstructs the history of the loans—including freight charges for timber, the cost of silver cups, and emergency funds—by relying on precise bank records, circumstantial evidence, and witness testimonies. He methodically dismantles Timotheus’s defenses, such as the claim that the debts were personally contracted by his treasurer, by exposing chronological contradictions and highlighting the defendant's refusal to hand over slaves for interrogation. Finally, Apollodorus details the general’s history of broken oaths and appeals to the jurors to uphold justice and help him recover the money rightfully owed to his father’s estate.