The freed-slave banker Pasion willed his widow and his bank to his own freed slave Phormio; his son Apollodorus sued and was fined

Pasion had been the slave of Archestratus and became a banker. A speech written for his successor says Pasion held about twenty talents in real property and more than fifty talents lent at interest. He leased his bank and shield factory to Phormio, his own former slave. When he fell ill he made a will. Phormio married his widow, Archippe, under its terms and became guardian of his younger son, Pasicles. The elder son, Apollodorus, was 24. He said Phormio married his mother while he was away commanding a warship for Athens, and he indicted Phormio for outrage. Courts were closed during the war, and the case lapsed. The estate was divided; Apollodorus chose the shield factory, worth a talent a year, over the bank, worth 100 minae. Phormio's speaker said Apollodorus received more than 40 talents in all. After his mother died, Apollodorus sued Phormio for the bank's capital. Phormio entered a special plea, with witnesses to a release, the lease and the will. The jury refused to hear Apollodorus at all. He failed to get a fifth of the votes and was fined a sixth of his claim. He then prosecuted Phormio's witness Stephanus for perjury, saying the will "never existed." Phormio's speaker reminded the jury that Pasion himself had once been a slave. Both speeches survive in the works of Demosthenes.