43
And Philip, who was my father’s guest-friend, was summoned and appeared, but took to flight in alarm at the magnitude of the danger; Pasion, however, furnished for me Archestratus,The banker Archestratus was the former master of Pasion. the banker, as surety for seven talents. And yet if he stood to lose but a small sum and had known that I possessed no funds here, surely he would not have become my surety for so large an amount.
44
But it is obvious that Pasion called in the three hundred drachmas as a favor to me, and that he became my surety for seven talents because he judged that the gold on deposit with him was a sufficient guarantee. That, therefore, I had a large sum of money here and that it was deposited in his bank I have not only proved to you from Pasion’s acts but you have also heard it from the others who know the facts.
45
It seems to me, men of the jury, that you would best decide upon the questions at issue if you should call to mind that period and the situation in which our affairs stood when I sent Menexenus and Philomelus to claim the deposit and Pasion for the first time had the hardihood to deny its existence. You find, in fact, that my father had been arrested and deprived of all his property, and that I was unable, because of the embarrassment in which I found myself, either to remain here or to sail to the Pontus.
