Papers of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (5.1886-1890)

71

INSCRIPTIONS FROM IK ARIA.

ireirpap,e.vwv eVt Xvaei: This technical legal phrase means that the
vendor retains the increase of the property, and has the right to repur-
chase at the same price at which he sold it. On the other hand, he pays
a rent (filadaipa or fj,[a0co<ris) equal in amount to the interest on the
money which he received for the property. Thus the whole transac-
tion is practically equivalent to a mortgage loan, with this difference,
that in the latter case the party who receives the loan remains (so long
as he pays the interest and no foreclosure takes place), both practically
and legally, the proprietor, while under the Greek law iirl Xvaet the
proprietorship was legally vested in the party who gave the loan (as
in early English law), although possession remained with the original
owner. There was a legal transfer of property, and technically, in-
stead of interest being paid on the loan, rent was paid on the land.1
To illustrate from our inscription : X. (name of vendor not given)
desires to borrow money from Lysistratos, and, instead of giving
him security in the shape of a mortgage on his lands and gardens and
house and paying interest on the loan, he actually sells this property
to Lysistratos, and then rents it of him at a rate equivalent to the
interest on the amount which Lysistratos has paid him for it. If he
should be sufficiently prosperous, he would be able by the terms of the
sale to buy back the property at the same price which he received for it.

Compared to the mortgage system, this process seems complicated,
and the difficulties which might arise from it are shown in the oration
of Demosthenes referred to in the last note. Pantainctos borrows
money from Mnesikles to buy certain mining works, but by way of
security Mnesikles is considered the legal purchaser, and holds the rec-
ords of the sale (ra? cbz/a?), whatever may have been their form. But
Mnesikles afterwards demands his money, and, to pay him, Pantainetos
is obliged to find new loaners, who purchase the property from Mnesi-
kles and then rent it to Pantainetos at a rate equivalent to the 12$
interest on the amount they had paid for it: Kal tovtoc<; viroOi'jKriv
hihaxji to epyacmjpiov, Kal rd dvhpdiroha. ypa/u-p-arelov Se, ov^ viro-
BrjKTjs, dXXd 7rpdo-ea><i ypdfaTai. The last sentence is rendered by
Paley and Sandys:2 "And thus the indenture is not a mortgage, but
an actual conveyance." One of the several difficulties in the under-
standing of this oration arises from the fact that, while Pantainetos is
practically owner and manager of the mining property, the ownership

1 DEM., Pantain.: imodttris: Kal tovto tu> pev Zpyy t6kos, t£ 5e ovo^xari fxiaducis.

2 Select Private Orations of P/cmosthenes, pari i, p. 85.