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§ 23. ‘Phormion pretends to have paid a sum to Lampis which I can show to be more than he owed me at Athens; and therefore it is very improbable that he paid it.’ Again an argument ἐκ τῶν εἰκότων. οὗτος My partner Chrysippus.——δισχιλίας, cf. § 6, where the sum is called 20 minae. ——ὥστε, ‘on condition of receiving at Athens 2600 drachms.’ The interest therefore was very large, but so also was the risk considerable. στατῆρας Hesych. Κυζικηνικοὶ στατῆρες: διεβεβόηντο ὡς εὖ κεχαραγμένοι. πρόσωπον δὲ ἦν γυναικὸς ὁ τύπος. [The ordinary gold stater weighed a double drachma of silver; and as, in the time of Menander, shortly after the date of this speech, the ratio of gold to silver had fallen from 13 1/3 to 10:1 (Pollux, ix 76), the value of this stater must have fallen to 20 dr. The Cyzicene stater was nearly twice as heavy, but, being of electrum, the value of the gold contained in it (3/4 or less) must have fallen to less than 30 dr. The text informs us that its value at Bosporus was 28 Attic drachmae. “The weight of the Cyzicene stater is uniformly about 248 grains. As the Attic and Macedonian staters which weighed 133 grains were equivalent to 20 Attic drachmae, while the Cyzicene, weighing 248 grains, passed for no more than 28, it is evident that the silver alloy of the electrum of which those pieces are made was deducted and considered of no value, not being in fact worth the cost of extraction. Mr Burgon estimates the alloy of ancient electrum at about 1/4. Then as 133 is to 20, so is 3/4 of 248 or 186 to 28, exactly the equivalent in drachmae of the Cyzicene stater as given by Demosthenes.” Leake's Numismata Hellenica (Asiatic Greece), p. 50. A specimen may be seen in Leake's Collection at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, Div. II 21, and there are two others in Trin. Coll. Library. Their types vary, sometimes the head of a bull or lion, generally with a tunny-fish below; sometimes the head of Proserpine. See Plate of Coins, no. 6 and 7. Cf. Hesych. quoted above; Boeckh's Publ. Econ. bk. I, chap. v, notes 45— 50 Frànkel, and Head's Hist. Num. p. 450. S.] δανεισάμενος ‘By borrowing money (at Bosporus) on the interest paid for loans on land,’ i.e. on real security. This being έφεκτος, i.e. a sixth part added to the sum lent (e.g. £70 for £60, or somewhat more than 16 per cent.), makes up the following sums; 120 staters = 3360 dr. = 33 min. 60 dr., which + in terest at 1/6 or 560 amounts to 3920 dr. = 39 min. 20 dr. ἔφεκτοι Harpocr. s. v. ἔφεκτος τόκος: ὁ ἐπὶ τῷ ἕκτῳ τοῦ κεφαλαίου: Δημοσθένης ἐν τῷ ὑπὲρ Χρυσίππου. ἐδύνατο ἐκεῖ This shows that the value of money differed, as with us, in different places. [Cf. Xenoph. de Vectig. III 2 καὶ οἱ ἀργύριον ἐξάγοντες (ἐκ τῶν Ἀθηνῶν) καλὴν ἐμπορίαν ἐξάγουσιν. ὅπου γὰρ ἂν πωλῶσιν αὐτό, πανταχοῦ πλεῖον τοῦ ἀρχαίου λαμβάνουσιν. K. F. Hermann, Privatalterthümer, § 47, 17 = p. 451 ed. Blumner. S.]
Select Private Orations of Demosthenes, Part I. F. A. Paley, M.A., LL.D., and J. E. Sandys, Litt. D. 1898. Cambridge University Press.
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