Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- I Approaches to lending and borrowing
- II The ideology of lending and borrowing
- III Borrowing and repayment
- IV The rôle of interest
- V Philia and friendship
- VI Non-professional lending: loans without interest
- VII Non-professional lending: loans bearing interest
- VIII Professional money-lending
- IX Conclusion
- Appendices
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index of passages cited
- Index of papyri
- Index of inscriptions
- General index
VIII - Professional money-lending
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 August 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- I Approaches to lending and borrowing
- II The ideology of lending and borrowing
- III Borrowing and repayment
- IV The rôle of interest
- V Philia and friendship
- VI Non-professional lending: loans without interest
- VII Non-professional lending: loans bearing interest
- VIII Professional money-lending
- IX Conclusion
- Appendices
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index of passages cited
- Index of papyri
- Index of inscriptions
- General index
Summary
MONEY-LENDING AND MORAL DEGRADATION
One of Theophrastus' more unpleasant Characters is the ‘Man Suffering from aponoia’ (vi). The word is almost untranslatable: ‘desperate boldness’ (Healey 1616), ‘recklessness’ (Jebb 1909), and ‘moral insanity’ (Theophrast 1897) are at best approximations. Theophrastus himself defines and characterizes aponoia as (§§ 1–6)
persisting in degrading language and behaviour. The man who suffers from aponoia acts something like this. He will swear an oath on the spot and is prepared to hear himself slandered and abused. In character, he is vulgar (agoraios), lacking in decency, and without principle… He is notorious for his activities as inn-keeper, brothel-keeper, and tax farmer. He does not reject any trade as beneath his dignity; rather, he acts as herald, cook or gambles. He does not feed his mother, is arrested for theft, and spends more time in prison than in his own house.
So the man smitten with aponoia feels no shame about putting himself beyond the pale of decent society through his repeated contraventions of accepted social norms. Given the nature of Athenian society, some unfortunates were bound to end up as inn-keepers, tax-farmers, and even brothel-keepers; but only a person with a severe personality defect would insist on being them all. Such is the background against which this Character's activities as a money-lender are to be read (§9):
He does not think it beneath himself to lord it over the mass of small traders in the agora. He lends them money on the spot, and charges interest of 1½ obols on every drachma each day (= 25 per cent per day). He goes the rounds on the hot food stalls, the fresh and salted fishmongers, collecting his interest from their takings, and putting it straight into his mouth.
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- Information
- Lending and Borrowing in Ancient Athens , pp. 179 - 217Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991