His father left him a fortune which another man would have found sufficient for the service of the state also.1 But Timarchus was not able even to preserve it for himself. There was a house south of the Acropolis, a suburban estate at Sphettus, another piece of land at Alopeke, and besides there were nine or ten slaves who were skilled shoemakers, each of whom paid him a fee of two obols a day, and the superintendent of the shop three obols.2 Besides these there was a woman skilled in flax-working, who produced fine goods for the market, and there was a man skilled in embroidery. Certain men also owed him money, and there were house furnishings.
1 Such a fortune would have been enough to enable the ordinary man to perform the special honorable services demanded of rich citizens, to be trierarch, choregus, etc.
2 Masters sometimes allowed their slaves to buy their time at so much per day; this fee was called ἀποφορά. Such slaves could do business for themselves, or hire themselves out to manufacturers, contractors, etc. Much of the skilled labor of the city was performed by slaves.
Aeschines. Aeschines with an English translation by Charles Darwin Adams, Ph.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1919.
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