29
Consider now of how large a sum they are defrauding me in the matter of these sofa-makers: the principal alone, forty minae, and interest upon it for ten years, two talents; for they obtained from the slaves a profit of twelve minae each year. Is this a trifling sum drawn from some obscure source, which might easily have been miscalculated, or have they not manifestly robbed me of nearly three talentsStrictly, two talents and forty minae. See the table on p. 11.? Of this sum which they have jointly scattered to the winds, it is surely right that I should recover a third from the defendant.
30
Furthermore, men of the jury, they have dealt in much the same way with the ivory and iron which were left me. They do not produce them. Yet it is impossible that one who possessed so many sofa-makers and so many sword-makers should not also have left iron and ivory. These things must have been available, for what could the slaves have produced without these materials.
31
Well then, though my father possessed more than fifty slaves and conducted two factories, one of which easily consumed two minae worth of ivory per month for the sofas, while the sword-factory consumed as much more, and iron besides, these men declare that he left no ivory and no iron; to such a pitch of shamelessness have they come.
32
From these facts alone it is easy to see that no credence is to be given to their statements; but that my father actually did leave such an amount of these materials as not only to suffice for his own workmen to use in their trade, but also for sale to anyone else who wished to buy, is made clear by the fact that he himself during his lifetime used to sell these materials, and that after his death Demophon and the defendant continued to sell them from out my house to those wishing to buy.
