20
since he has had the face to deny one part of his debt and, after finally confessing to the rest, to make out a sum of seven talents of silver and seven thousand drachmae as receipts and expenses on account of two boys and their sister during eight years. So gross is his impudence that, not knowing how he should enter the sums spent, he reckoned for the viands of the two young boys and their sister five obols a dayAt this period the daily cost of food for an adult could be reckoned at one obol: in the present case, for the food (other than cereal) of three children, the charge of five obols is at least twice what it should be. A more reasonable scale is suggested by the speaker at Lys. 32.28 below.; for shoes, laundry and hairdressing he kept no monthly or yearly account, but he shows it inclusively, for the whole period, as more than a talent of silver.
21
For the father’s tomb, though he did not spend twenty-five minae of the five thousand drachmae shown, he charges half this sum to himself, and has entered half against them.Having stated that the tomb cost 50 minae (5000 drachmae), he undertook to pay half of this himself, and charge the other half to the children’s estate: but this latter half covered the actual cost. Then for the Dionysia,Orphans’ estates were not required to contribute to the offerings at the State festivals. gentlemen of the jury,—I do not think it irrelevant to mention this also,—he showed sixteen drachmae as the price of a lamb, and charged eight of these drachmae to the children: this entry especially roused our anger.Here again the actual cost was probably no more than the half-share charged to the children. Here again the actual cost was probably no more than the half-share charged to the children. And so it is, gentlemen: in the midst of heavy losses the sufferers of wrong are sometimes wounded as much by little things; for these expose in so very clear a light the wickedness of the wrongdoer.
