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Plot on a Map
Athens.

(1) Some do not ascribe this speech to Demosthenes, but it has the following hypothesis. (2) There was an organization at Athens of three hundred men selected according to wealth; the more expensive of the liturgies fell to them. But the law allowed any of these men who had labored hard at performing liturgies to get out of the organization, if he could show that there was someone richer than himself who currently had no responsibilities. And if the man so designated admitted that he was richer, he was appointed to take the other man’s place among the three hundred. But if he denied it, they subjected his estate to an exchange (antidosis). (3) Now then, one of the three hundred, saying that he has already labored hard over liturgies and consequently is poor, has named Phaenippus, and they have initiated an exchange of property. But with regard to the exchange, he accuses Phaenippus of not giving the inventory of his estate at the appropriate time, but much later; of breaking the seals on the building for the purpose of carrying off some of the things inside; and of fabricating lies about his being greatly in debt.

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page 52 of 58