the claim that if anything of the sort had occurred I would have brought a plea in bar of action against him, but that I should come to court with this plea and demonstrate to you both that I have done this man no wrong and that his prosecution of me is illegal. [2] If Pantainetos had suffered any of the wrongs of which he is now complaining, he would clearly have brought a suit at once during the period when our business dealings took place, since these suits are monthly and we were both in town, and when all mankind are in the habit of showing their indignation right at the moment of their wrongs rather than after a delay. Since he has suffered no wrong – as you too will (I’m sure) affirm when you hear what happened – but is plaguing me from the confidence aroused by his success in the suit against Euergos, the only course left for me is to prove in your court, judges, that I am not in any way guilty and provide witness for my statements in an attempt to save myself. [3] My request to all of you will be modest and fair: to hear me with goodwill on the issue of my barring plea and to pay attention to the whole of my case. For though many suits have taken place in the city, I think it will be found that no-one has brought a suit more shameless or more unscrupulous than the one he has dared to lodge and bring to court. I shall give you as brief an account as I am able of all our dealings from the beginning. [4] Euergos and I loaned one hundred and five mnai to Pantainetos here, judges, on the security of a processing plant among the mine workings at Maroneia and thirty slaves. Forty-five mnai of the loan were mine, while one talent belonged to Euergos. As it happened, Pantainetos owed a talent to Mnesikles of Kollytos and forty-five mnai to Phileas of Eleusis and Pleistor. [5] The individual who sold the processing plant and the slaves to us was Mnesikles (he was the one who had bought the property for Pantainetos from Telemachos, its former owner), and Pantainetos leased it from us for the interest accruing on the money, one hundred and five drachmas per month. We made a contract in which were written the terms of the lease and a right for Pantainetos to redeem the property from us within a stated time. [6] Once this had been completed in the month of Elaphebolion in the archonship of Theophilos, I sailed off to the Black Sea, while this man and Euergos were here. As to their dealings with each other while I was away, I could not say. For their versions do not agree with each other, nor does Pantainetos’ version always agree with itself. Sometimes he says he was evicted
Keyword(s):
The One
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