[193] Boeckh (Public Econ. of Athens, b. i, ch. 22, p. 128) thinks differently,—in my judgment, contrary to the evidence: the passages to which he refers, especially that of Theophrastus, are not sufficient to sustain his opinion, and there are other passages which go far to contradict it.
[194] Lysias cont. Theomnêst. A. c. 5, p. 360.
[195] Cicero, De Officiis, i, 42.
[196] Plato, Legg. iii, p. 684. ὡς ἐπιχειροῦντι δὴ νομοθέτῃ κινεῖν τῶν τοιούτων τι πᾶς ἀπαντᾷ, λέγων, μὴ κινεῖν τὰ ἀκίνητα, καὶ ἐπαρᾶται γῆς τε ἀναδασμοὺς εἰσηγούμενον καὶ χρεῶν ἀποκοπὰς, ὥστ᾽ εἰς ἀπορίαν καθίστασθαι πάντα ἄνδρα, etc.: compare also v, pp. 736-737, where similar feelings are intimated not less emphatically.
Cicero lays down very good principles about the mischief of destroying faith in contracts; but his admonitions to this effect seem to be accompanied with an impracticable condition: the lawgiver is to take care that debts shall not be contracted to an extent hurtful to the state: “Quamobrem ne sit æs alienum, quod reipublicæ noceat, providendum est (quod multis rationibus caveri potest): non, si fuerit, ut locupletes suum perdant, debitores lucrentur alienum,” etc. What the multæ rationes were, which Cicero had in his mind, I do not know: compare his opinion about fœneratores, Offic. i, 42 ii, 25.
[197] See Plutarch’s Life of Agis, especially ch. 13, about the bonfire in which the κλάρια, or mortgage-deeds, of the creditors were all burnt, in the agora of Sparta: compare also the comparison of Agis with Gracchus, c. 2.
[198] “Græcâ fide mercari.” Polybius puts the Greeks greatly below the Romans in point of veracity and good faith (vi, 56); in another passage, he speaks not quite so confidently (xviii, 17). Even the testimony of the Roman writers is sometimes given in favor of Attic good faith, not against it—“ut semper et in omni re, quicquid sincerâ fide gereretur, id Romani, Atticâ fieri, prædicarent.” (Velleius Paterc. ii, 23.)
The language of Heffter (Athenäische Gerichts Verfassung, p. 466), especially, degrades very undeservedly the state of good faith and credit at Athens.
The whole tone and argument of the Oration of Dêmosthenês against Leptinês is a remarkable proof of the respect of the Athenian dikastery for vested interests, even under less obvious forms than that of pecuniary possession. We may add a striking passage of Dêmosthenês cont. Timokrat. wherein he denounces the rescinding of past transactions (τὰ πεπραγμένα λῦσαι, contrasted with prospective legislation) as an injustice peculiar to an oligarchy, and repugnant to the feelings of a democracy (cont. Timokrat. c. 20, p. 724; c. 36, 747).
[199] A similar credit, in respect to monetary probity, may be claimed for the republic of Florence. M. Sismondi says, “Au milieu des révolutions monétaires de tous les pays voisins et tandis que la mauvaise foi des gouvernemens altéroit le numéraire d’une extrémité à l’autre de l’Europe, le florin ou séquin de Florence est toujours resté le même: il est du même poids, du même titre: il porte la même empreinte que celui qui fut battu en 1252.” (Républiques Italiennes, vol. iii, ch. 18, p. 176.)