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The less well-to-do among the citizens were so far from envying those of greater means that they were as solicitous for the great estates as for their own, considering that the prosperity of the rich was a guarantee of their own well-being. Those who possessed wealth, on the other hand, did not look down upon those in humbler circumstances, but, regarding poverty among their fellow-citizens as their own disgrace, came to the rescue of the distresses of the poor, handing over lands to some at moderate rentals, sending out some to engage in commerce, and furnishing means to others to enter upon various occupations;
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for they had no fear that they might suffer one of two things—that they might lose their whole investment or recover, after much trouble, only a mere fraction of their venture; on the contrary, they felt as secure about the money which was lent out as about that which was stored in their own coffers. For they saw that in cases of contract the judges were not in the habit of indulging their sense of equityThat is, their own sense of right and wrong (almost their sympathy) as distinguished from the legal sense. See Aristotle’s distinction between equality and justice in Aristot. Rh. 1374b 21. “The arbitrator,” he says, “looks to equity; the judge, to law.” but were strictly faithful to the laws;
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and that they did not in trying others seek to make it safe for themselves to disobey the law,Cf. Isoc. 15.142, where he charges the Athenian juries with condoning depravity in others in order to make depravity safe for themselves. but were indeed more severe on defaulters than were the injured themselves, since they believed that those who break down confidence in contracts do a greater injury to the poor than to the rich; for if the rich were to stop lending, they would be deprived of only a slight revenue, whereas if the poor should lack the help of their supporters they would be reduced to desperate straits.
