§§ 4—9. My opponent's brother, Nicostratus, was my neighbour in the country, and, being about the same age, we were thπown much together and became more and more intimate with one another. I granted him whatever he asked of me, and he on his part was of some service to me in taking charge of my property whenever I was abroad on public or private business.
On one of these occasions, when I had left him in charge, three of his servants ran away from him. While pursuing them, he was taken prisoner by a privateer, and sold as a slave. On my return, I was told of his unhappy plight by one of his brothers, Deinon, and I supplied the latter with travelling expenses and thus enabled him to go to the rescue of Nicostratus. The latter, on his return, informed me that he had been ransomed for a considerable sum. He appealed to me with tears in his eyes and pointed to the marks left by the galling fetters (though he is now ashamed enough of those scars that are the memorials of his slavery). He thus succeeded in inducing me to forgive him the three minae, which I had advanced for his brother's travelling expenses, and to contribute, as a free gift towards the twenty-six minae required for the ransom, the sum of ten minae which I raised on the security of some of my property.
Νικόστρατος γὰρ] γὰρ is almost invariably used at the beginning of narratives like the present; the English idiom generally requires us to omit it in translation, though we may sometimes renderit, ‘Well, then,’ ‘to proceed, then.’ Cf. Or. 55 § 10 τοῦ γὰρ χωρίου κ.τ.λ., 27 § 4.
γνωρίμως εἶχε] γνώριμος is a much weaker word than φίλος, as has already been noticed, on Or. 45 § 73. The gradually increasing intimacy between Apollodorus and Nicostratus is well expressed by the successive phrases (1) γνωρἰμως εἶχε, (2) μᾶλλον άλλήλοις ἐχρώμεθα, (3) πάνυ οίκείως διεκείμεθα of the present section, and (4) φίλος ἀληθινὸς of § 12. Cf. 33 § 5 γνωρίμως ἔχω ..πάνυ οἰκείως χρῶμαι.
ἐτελεύτησεν ὁ πατὴρ The death of Pasion took place B.C. 370 (Or. 46 § 13).
κατῴκουν ..οἰκῶ If any distinction is to be drawn, the compound verb should be rendered ‘I settled’ and the simple ‘I live’; but it is more likely that οἰκῶ is intended as a virtual repetition of the preceding κατῴκουν. In such cases it is unnecessary to repeat the preposition, e.g. Eur. Bacc. 1065 κατῆγεν ἦγεν ἦγεν είς μέλαν πἐδον and Orest. 181 διοιχόμεσθ᾽, οἰχόμεθα, where Porson remarks that, when a verb is repeated, it is generally used first in its compound, then in its simple form. Or. 36 § 4 προσώφειλε. .ὤφειλε, 33 § 18 ἐξοίσειν. .ἐνήνοχεν.
μᾶλλον...ἡλικιῶται ‘We grew more and more familiar with one another from being not only neighbours but also of the same age.’ Or. 55 § 23 ad fin. and Or. 35 § 6 ἐπιτήδειοί μοί εἰσι καὶ χρώμεθ᾽ άλλήλοις ὡς οἷόν τε μάλιστα.
χρόνου προβαίνοντος Soph. Phil. 285 ὁ μὲν χρόνος δὴ διὰ χρόνου προὔβαινέ μοι.
δημοσίᾳ τριηραρχῶν This reference to the speaker's public services is dexterously in serted to ingratiate him with his audience, as well as to lead up to the subsequent narrative συμβαίνει δή μοι τριηραρχία.—On some of the later trierarchal services of Apollodorus cf. note on Or. 36 § 41.
