39
Again, Apollodorus himself did not, like Pronapes, assess his property below its value, but, paying taxes as a knight, aspired to hold the offices open to that rank, nor did he seek to possess himself by violence of the property of others and think that you ought to have no advantage from his wealth, but he openly declared the amount of his fortune and met whatever demands for service you made upon him, and wronging no man he tried to live honorably on his own fortune, considering that he ought to be moderate in his personal expenditure and dedicate the surplus to the service of the state, so that it might meet its expenses.
40
As a result of these principles, what public service did he fail perfectly to discharge? To what war-tax was he not among the first to contribute? What duty has he ever failed to perform? When he undertook the provision of a choir of boys, he was victorious in the competition, and the well-known tripod still stands as a memorial of his honorable ambition. And what is the duty of a respectable citizen? Was it not his duty, while others were trying to take by force what did not belong to him, to do no such thing himself but to try and preserve what was his own? Is it not his duty, when the state needs money, to be among the first to contribute and not to conceal any part of his fortune?
