Demosthenes, Against Lacritus, Augustus Taber Murray (Translator), 32

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[32] That is what he said; but it is worth your while to learn the abominable wickedness of these men, and their mendacity. Concerning the vessel which was wrecked they had no contract,¹ but it was another man who had lent from Athens upon the freight to Pontus, and on the vessel itself. (Antipater was the lender’s name; he was a Citian² by birth.) The Coan wine (eighty jars of wine that had turned sour) and the salt fish were being transported in the vessel for a certain farmer from Panticapaeum to Theodosia for the use of the laborers on his farm. Why, then, do they keep alleging these excuses? It is in no wise fitting.

Against Lacritus. Demosthenes. Augustus Taber Murray (Translator). London. 1936.

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Current edition Perseus

Androcles Against Lacritus (English) (Demosthenes, Vol. IV: Private Orations, Vol 1. Murray, A. T., translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1936 (printing).)

Editions (1)

πρὸς τὴν Λάκριτον παραγραφὴν Perseus (Demosthenes. Orationes, Vol. II, Part 2. Rennie, W., editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1921.) — 32 focus

[32] καὶ ἃ μὲν ἔλεγεν, ταῦτʼ ἦν· ἄξιον δὲ ἀκοῦσαι τὴν βδελυρίαν τῶν ἀνθρώπων τούτων καὶ τὴν ψευδολογίαν. πρός τε γὰρ τὸ πλοῖον τὸ ναυαγῆσαν οὐδὲν ἦν αὐτοῖς συμβόλαιον, ἀλλʼ ἦν ἕτερος ὁ δεδανεικὼς Ἀθήνηθεν ἐπὶ τῷ ναύλῳ τῷ εἰς τὸν Πόντον καὶ ἐπʼ αὐτῷ τῷ πλοίῳ (Ἀντίπατρος ὄνομα ἦν τῷ δεδανεικότι, Κιτιεὺς τὸ γένος)· τό τε οἰνάριον τὸ Κῷον ὀγδοήκοντα στάμνοι ἐξεστηκότος οἴνου, καὶ τὸ τάριχος ἀνθρώπῳ τινὶ γεωργῷ παρεκομίζετο ἐν τῷ πλοίῳ ἐκ Παντικαπαίου εἰς Θεοδοσίαν τοῖς ἐργάταις τοῖς περὶ τὴν γεωργίαν χρῆσθαι. τί οὖν ταύτας τὰς προφάσεις λέγουσιν; οὐδὲν γὰρ προσήκει.

Notes on the current edition

Against Lacritus

1. The speaker’s contention is that even if the ship was wrecked, that fact does not release Lacritus from his obligation; for the loan made by Androcles was secured not by the ship, which appears to have been mortgaged to Antipater, but upon the cargo of Mendaean wine and the return cargo which was to have been brought from Pontus. The wares lost (by jettison when the ship was damaged) were not, the speaker holds, the return cargo. That the ship was not actually lost seems a necessary inference from Dem. 35.28 , where it is stated that she returned to Athens.

2. Citium is a port in Cyprus.

Demosthenes Against Lacritus 32

Augustus Taber Murray (Translator)

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