97
His father left him a fortune which another man would have found sufficient for the service of the state also.Such a fortune would have been enough to enable the ordinary man to perform the special honorable services demanded of rich citizens, to be trierarch, choregus, etc. But Timarchus was not able even to preserve it for himself. There was a house south of the Acropolis, a suburban estate at Sphettus, another piece of land at Alopeke, and besides there were nine or ten slaves who were skilled shoemakers, each of whom paid him a fee of two obols a day, and the superintendent of the shop three obols.Masters sometimes allowed their slaves to buy their time at so much per day; this fee was called ἀποφορά. Such slaves could do business for themselves, or hire themselves out to manufacturers, contractors, etc. Much of the skilled labor of the city was performed by slaves. Besides these there was a woman skilled in flax-working, who produced fine goods for the market, and there was a man skilled in embroidery. Certain men also owed him money, and there were house furnishings.
98
Here, at any rate, by Zeus, I will present my witnesses to prove the truth of what I say, and they will testify most clearly and explicitly; for there is no danger, as there was the other time, to the man who testifies to the truth, nor any disgrace either. The city residence he sold to Nausicrates, the comic poet;The MSS. vary between the readings ποιητῇ poet and ὑποκριτῇ actor. Suidas attests the name Nausicrates as that of a comic poet, and mentions two of his comedies. The name occurs in an Attic inscription (I.G.ii. 977) in a list of comic poets, but the same inscription gives the name in a list of comic actors also. afterward Cleaenetus, the chorus-master, bought it of Nausicrates for twenty minas. The suburban estate Mnesitheus of Myrrinoussa bought of him, a large tract, but wretchedly run down by his neglect.
