[7]
This, men of the jury, to put it as
briefly as possible, is a summing up of the wrongs they have done me. But of the
fact that the amount of property left by my father was as much as I have stated
these men themselves have proved the most convincing witnesses, for in the
tax-company1 they agreed on my behalf to a
tax of five hundred drachmae on every twenty-five minae2—a tax equal to that paid by Timotheus,
son of Conon,3 and those possessing the largest fortunes.
However, I had better inform you in detail what portions of the property were
producing a profit and what were unproductive, and what were their respective
values; for when you have accurate information regarding these matters, you will
know that of all who have ever acted as trustees none have so shamelessly and so
openly plundered an estate as these men have plundered ours.
1 Each of the ten Athenian tribes selected one hundred and twenty men as their richest members. These twelve hundred men were divided into twenty groups of sixty each （called συμμορίαι）, and from them certain men were designated to bear the burdens of public service （the treirarchy, choregia, etc.） and of the special property-tax imposed in time of need.
2 This was a tax of 20 percent of the man's entire property, and was the maximum.
3 Timotheus was one of the leading citizens of Athens. His father, Conon, was the famous general who in 395 had destroyed the Lacedemonian fleet at Cnidos.
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by A. T. Murray, Ph.D., LL.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1939.
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