§ 26. The plaintiff's suit is also inadmissible for another reason; it contravenes the statute of limitations, in which the term of five years is fixed as a sufficient time for injured parties to recover their dues, whereas the plaintiff puts forward his claim after a lapse of more than twenty years.
προθεσμίας νόμον (See Dict. Antiq. s.v.)—Harpocr. Δημοσθένης ὑπὲρ Φορμίωνος: τὴν τῶν έ ὲτῶν ἂν λἐγοι προθεσμίαν ὁ ῥήτωρ, ὡς ἐν τῷ λόγῳ ὑποσημαίνει. See Or. 38 §§ 17, 27, Or. 43 § 16, and cf. Isaeus, 3 § 58 (with Wyse's note), and Plato Leg. pp. 928c, 954c. (Caillemer, la Prescription à Athènes, 1869, Droit de Succession, p. 169 f., Beauchet, Droit Privé, III 627 f., and Hermann-Thalheim, Rechtsalt. p. 122{4}.)
πλέον ἢ εἴκοσι The speaker apparently goes back to the time of Pasion's lease of the banking business to Phormion, which cannot well have been later than B.C. 371, when Pasion was so infirm that he died a year after. This would bring the date of the speech to B.C. 351 at the earliest, and B.C. 350 cannot be far wrong. See Introd. p. xxvii f.
πλέον ... πλείονος KühnerBlass, Gr. Gr. I 1, 571.
καθ᾽ οὓς ὀμωμοκότες κ.τ.λ. Pollux: ὁ δ᾽ ὅρκος ἦν τῶν δικαστῶν, περὶ μὲν ὧν νόμοι εἰσί, ψηφιεῖσθαι κατὰ τοὺς νόμους, περὶ δὲ ὧν μή εἰσι, γνώμῃ τῇ δικαιοτάτῃ (VIII 122). See Dr Hager in Journal of Philology, VI 10, and Meierand Schömann, p. 152—5 Lipsius.
