Demosthenes, Speeches 27-38

36. For Phormion

36. FOR PHORMION introduction Seven speeches in the Demosthenic corpus (Orations 45, 46, 49, 50, 52, 53, and the main part of 59) are composed for delivery by Apollodorus son of Pasion, and most or all of them are now generally believed to have been written by him. The speech For Phormion, on the other hand, is a speech against Apollodorus and enables us to see his affairs from an opposing point of view. Pasion had been a slave working in a bank in Piraeus owned by Antisthenes and Archestratus. Eventually he was given his freedom, took over the bank, became a wealthy man, and in return for benefactions to Athens was given Athenian citizenship. In his turn, he owned a slave named Phormion (not the same man as the Phormion in Oration 34), who was a cashier or manager in the bank, was given his freedom as a reward for good service, and later (in 361/0) became an Athenian citizen. Pasion and his wife Archippe had two sons. By the time of Pasion’s death in 370/69 the elder son, Apollodorus, was already adult, but the younger son, Pasicles, was only about ten years old. Pasion therefore left a will appointing Phormion and a man named Nicocles as guardians. (He did not make Apollodorus a guardian of his young brother, probably because he regarded him as unreliable.) The guardians were to look after the whole of Pasion’s property, which besides the bank included a shield-factory and other buildings, and also substantial sums which he had lent to various men and which were due to be repaid. The property was not to be divided between the sons until Pasicles came of age. Meanwhile Phormion was to hold a lease of the bank and the shield-factory, arranged by Pasion before his death. Phormion also married Pasion’s widow Archippe, and in due course had children by her. 36. for phormion 151 1 On the procedure of counter-indictment (paragraphē), see pp. 12–13. During the next two years, we are told, Apollodorus spent lavishly from the not-yet-divided property. The guardians began to be afraid that much of it would be gone before Pasicles came of age and received his share; so they decided to disregard the will in this respect and divide the property immediately, giving Apollodorus his share and retaining responsibility only for Pasicles’ share during the rest of his minority . Phormion also kept the bank and the shield-factory on lease until Pasicles came of age. Then Apollodorus, as the elder, was allowed to choose between those two items, and he chose to have the factory. Pasicles thus received ownership of the bank, but subsequently the bank and the factory were both leased out again for ten years to four other men, Xenon, Euphraeus, Euphron, and Callistratus. It was not until after the end of that second lease that Apollodorus accused Phormion of failure to return all that was lent to him under the earlier lease. There had already been another dispute between them at the time of Archippe’s death (in 361/0), when Apollodorus claimed some of her possessions and Phormion reluctantly gave in to most of his demands. But now Apollodorus asserted that, when Phormion took the lease of the bank, he had also received a sum of money as working capital to finance the bank’s operations and had never returned it. Phormion denied that he had ever received any such sum. Apollodorus prosecuted him for the alleged debt, claiming 20 talents, but Phormion blocked the prosecution by a counter-indictment1 on the ground that it was illegal to reopen the matter after Apollodorus had, many years before, released Phormion by a formal declaration that all his obligations under the lease had been fulfilled. The speech which we have belongs to the trial of this counterindictment . It is composed for delivery not by Phormion himself but by a supporter. From the first sentence it appears that Phormion was unable to make a speech, either because of his poor command of the Greek language or because of illness or old age; he was nevertheless present in the court. The speech is skillfully written, presenting Phormion as an honest and conscientious servant of Athens, and Apollodorus as dishonest and profligate. It has never been seriously doubted that Demosthenes was the author, but many scholars have considered that it was probably not delivered in court by Demosthenes himself [18...