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§ 2. In doing this, we trust to the law and its administrators, and in particular to the legal principle, that all voluntary compacts are binding. I however have come to the conclusion that the law is of little avail, if a man is dishonest, and defies both it and the lender of the loan. τί λαβόντες τὸ βέβαιον ‘What do we get as our security when we part so lightly with our money?’ Cf. § 15. προίεσθαι (or προέσθαι) is the usual term for ‘lending on risk,’ ‘sacrificing on a venture,’ the notion being that of flinging away, projicere. Cf. Or. 36 § 6. The active is so used in Ar. Nub. 1214. τὸν συμβαλόντα The contributor or provider of the loan, thence called συμβολαῖον, from the ‘bringing together’ of the contracting parties.
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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