58
If it were not that he uses his present language after having at the outset been judged to be in the wrong by his own friends and by the arbitrator, there would be less reason to wonder at all this. But the fact is, that after persuading me to refer the matter to Archeneus and Dracontides and Phanus (the last of whom he is now suing on a charge of giving false witness), he rejected them (having heard them say that, if they decided on oath, they would condemn his conduct as guardian), and appeared before the official arbitrator, who, since Aphobus was unable to clear himself from the charges which I brought, gave judgement against him.
59
The jury, to whom he then appealed, having heard the case, gave the same decision that his own friends and the arbitrator had given, and fixed the damages at ten talents. This was not, heaven knows, because he had admitted Milyas to be a freeman (for this was nothing to the point), but because, a fortune of fifteen talents having been left me, he had not let the property; because further, he with his co-trustees had the management of the estate for ten years, and agreed on behalf of me, a child, to pay a property-tax at the rate of five minae,See notes b and c on Dem. 27.7 the same rate at which Timotheus, son of Conon, and those possessing the largest fortunes were assessed;
60
and because, after administering for so long an estate, on which he voluntarily chose to pay so high a tax, he turned over to me, as the amount due from him, property not even of the value of twenty minae, having together with those others robbed me of my whole estate, principal as well as interest. The jurymen, therefore, although they allowed interest on the whole property at the lowest rate, and not that at which estates are ordinarily let, found that these men had robbed me of more than thirty talents, and accordingly fixed the damages against Aphobus at ten talents.
