45
Our claims in the matter, therefore, are few and easy to be remembered. We lent this fellow Dionysodorus and his partner three thousand drachmae for a voyage from Athens to Egypt and from Egypt to Athens; we have not received either principal or interest, but they have kept our money and had the use of it for two years; they have not even to this day brought the ship back to your port, nor produced it plain to see. The agreement, however, declares, that if they fail to deliver up the ship plain to see they shall pay double the amount, and that the money may be recovered from either one or both of them.
46
These are the just claims with which we have come before you demanding to recover our money through your help, since we cannot get it from these men themselves. Such is the statement of our case. These men, however, while they admit that they borrowed the money and have not paid it back, contend that they are not bound to pay the interest stipulated in the agreement, but the interest as far as Rhodes only, which they made no part of their contract, and to which we have not consented.
47
Perhaps, men of Athens, if we were trying the case in a Rhodian court, these men might get the better of us, seeing that they have taken grain to Rhodes and sailed in their ship into that port; as it is, however, since we have come before Athenians and our contract called for a voyage to your port, we hold it right that you should give no advantage to men who have wronged you as well as ourselves.
