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Now, in the light of the facts themselves, consider in your own minds, men of the jury, what means the man was likely to have for discharging the debt. He sailed from this port without having put the goods on board the ship, and having no adequate security; on the contrary, he had made additional loans on the credit of the money lent by me. In Bosporus he found no market for his wares, and had difficulty in getting rid of those who had lent money for the outward-voyage.
23
My partner here had lent him two thousand drachmae for the double voyage on terms that he should receive at Athens two thousand six hundred drachmae; but Phormio declares that he paid Lampis in Bosporus one hundred and twenty Cyzicene statersThe stater of Cyzicus (a town on the south shore of the Propontis, or sea of Marmora) was a coin made of electrum, an alloy of approximately three-quarters gold and one-quarter silver. It was nearly twice as heavy as the ordinary gold stater, which was worth twenty drachmae, and had a value (as stated in the text) of twenty-eight drachmae. The addition of the word there indicates that the value differed in different places according to the rate of exchange. (note this carefully) which he borrowed at the interest paid on loans secured by real property. Now interest on real security was sixteen and two-thirds percent, and the Cyzicene stater was worth there twenty-eight Attic drachmae.
