3
I shall make a reasonable and fair request of you all, that you hear with goodwill what I have to say regarding my special plea, and that you give your attention to every aspect of the case. For, while hosts of cases have been tried in Athens, I think it will be shown that no man has ever brought before you one so marked by shamelessness and malice as this, which this fellow has had the audacity to bring into your court. I shall with all possible brevity set before you all the facts of the case.
4
Evergus and I, men of the jury, lent to this man Pantaenetus one hundred and five minae on the security of a mining property in MaroneiaMaroneia was a small district in the mining area of Laurium in Attica. and of thirty slaves. Of this loan forty-five minae belonged to me, and a talent to Evergus. It happened that the plaintiff also owed a talent to Mnesicles of CollytusCollytus was a deme of the tribe Aegeïs. and forty-five minae to Phileas of Eleusis and Pleistor.
5
The vendor to us of the mining property and the slaves was Mnesicles, for he had purchased them for the plaintiff from Telemachus, the former owner; and the plaintiff leased them from us at a rent equal to the interest accruing on the money, a hundred and five drachmae a month. We drew up an agreement in which the terms of the lease were stated, and the right was given the plaintiff of redeeming these things from us within a given time.
