- "Against Æschines, the Pupil of Socrates, for Debt," (for I
will recite the passage, even though it be a rather long one, on account of your excessive arrogance, O philosophers,)—begins in the following manner—"I never should have imagined, O judges, that Æschines would have dared to come into court on a trial which is so discreditable to him. For a more disgracefully false accusation than the one which he has brought forward, I do not believe it to be easy to find. For he, O judges, owing a sum of money with a covenanted interest of three drachmæ to Sosinomus the banker and Aristogiton, came to me, and besought me not to allow him to be wholly stripped of his own property, in consequence of this high interest. 'And I,' said he, am at this moment carrying on the trade of a perfumer; but I want capital to go on with, and I will pay you nine[1] obols a month interest." A fine end to the happiness of this philosopher was the trade of a perfumer, and admirably harmonizing with the philosophy of Socrates, a man who utterly rejected the use of all perfumes and unguents! And moreover, Solon the lawgiver expressly forbade a man to devote himself to any such business: on which account Pherecrates, in his Oven, or Woman sitting up all Night, says—
Why should he practise a perfumer's trade,
Sitting beneath a high umbrella there,
Preparing for himself a seat on which
To gossip with the youths the whole day long?
And presently afterwards he says—
And no one ever saw a female cook
Or any fishwoman; for every class
Should practise arts which are best suited to it.
And after what I have already quoted, the orator proceeds to say—"And I was persuaded by this speech of his, considering also that this Æschines had been the pupil of Socrates, and was a man who uttered fine sentiments about, that is to say, a drachma a month interest for each mina lent, was considered low. It was exceedingly common, however, among the money-lenders, to exact an exorbitant rate of interest, going even as high as a drachma every four days.—See Smith's Dict. Ant. v. Interest, p. 524.]
- ↑ This would have been 18 per cent. Three drachmæ were about 36 per cent. The former appears to have been the usual rate of interest at Athens in the time of Lysias; for we find in Demosthenes that interest [Greek: epi drachmê
