8
I shall produce witnesses to prove, first, that in the tax-company they agreed on my behalf to be taxed to the amount which I have stated, and, next, that my father did not leave me a poor man, nor one possessing an estate of merely seventy minae. On the contrary, my estate was so considerable that these men were themselves unable to hide its value from the state.
8
Take,These words were addressed to the clerk of the court. please, and read this deposition.
8
The Deposition
9
From this evidence it is clear what the value of the property was. Three talents is the tax on an estate of fifteen, and this tax they saw fit to pay. But you will see this more clearly if you hear what the property was. My father, men of the jury, left two factories, both doing a large business. One was a sword-manufactory, employing thirty-two or thirty-three slaves, most of them worth five or six minae each and none worth less than three minae. From these my father received a clear income of thirty minae each year. The other was a sofa-manufactory, employing twenty slaves, given to my father as security for a debt of forty minae. These brought him in a clear income of twelve minae. In money he left as much as a talent, loaned at the rate of a drachma a month,A drachma, that is, on each mina. This (12 percent) was the normal rate of interest on well-secured loans. the interest of which amounted to more than seven minae a year.
