Page 18 - Insurance Times October 2023

members, and passengers entered the hold of the ship to BCE. As Demosthenes had stated during his argument
investigate the noise. There they found Hegestratos. The "immediately on getting the money, they sent it home to
captain asked Hegestratos if he heard the noise, Hegestratos Massalia, and put nothing on board the ship. The agreement
denied hearing anything. The captain looked around but did being, as is usual in all such cases, that the money was to
not see anything to indicate where or what the noise was be paid back if the ship reached port safely, they laid a plot
coming from. The captain began to leave the hold but was to sink the ship, that so they might defraud their creditors.
stopped by a passenger. The passenger pointed out that Hegestratos, accordingly, when they were two or three days'
Hegestratos was hiding an axe behind him. As the captain voyage from land, went down by night into the hold of the
looked closer, he discovered that Hegestratos was vessel, and began to cut a hole in the ship's bottom, while
attempting to cut a hole in the hull of the ship in order to Zenothemis, as though knowing nothing about it, remained
sink the ship. on deck with the rest of the passengers. When the noise
was heard, those on the vessel saw that something wrong
In a panic, Hegestratos ran from the hold and made his way was going on in the hold, and rushed down to bear aid".
to the deck of the ship. Once there, he dove in attempting
to swim to a small boat the cargo ship was towing. He did Demosthenes was one of the greatest public speakers of
not make it and ironically, Hegestratos drowned at sea. A antiquity and an eminent statesman of his era, and his
fate he had intended for the crew and passengers of the writings are a key source of insight into the politics and
ship to help hide his deceit, as dead men tell no tales. Unable finance of Greece in the 4th century BC. For a time,
to sink the ship by himself, Xenothemis had to sail on to the Demosthenes made his living as a professional speechwriter
port, at which point the buyer, Protos, wanted to know why (logographer) and a lawyer, writing speeches for use in
his shipload of corn was empty. A legal battle is said to have private legal suits.
continued after but the verdict is kept hidden under the
wings of history. Zenosthemis was arrested and faced justice Lacritus was a sophist,and native of Phaselis,a town in
in the Athenian courts for his involvement in the scam. Bithynia, on the southern coast of Asia Minor is known to
us chiefly from the speech of Demosthenes against him.The
As we understand from the event, 'bottomry' was an subject of the speech entails a man named Androcles, who
arrangement in which the master of a ship borrowed money had lent a sum of money to Artemo, the brother of
upon the bottom or keel of it, so as to forfeit the ship itself Lacritus.The latter, on the death of his brother, refused to
to the creditor, if the money with interest is not paid at the refund the money, though he had become security for his
time appointed at the ship's safe return. This occurs, for brother, and was his heir. Hence, the suit was instituted
example, where the ship needs urgent repairs during the against him by Androcles, for whom Demosthenes
course of its voyage or some other emergency arises and it composed the speech in question.
is not possible for the master to contact the owner to
arrange funds, allowing the master to borrow money on the Demosthenes' oration 35, "Against Lacritus,'' contains the
security of the ship or the cargo by executing a bond.

Where the ship is hypothecated, the bond is called a
bottomry bond. Where both the ship and its cargo are
hypothecated, the relationship is called respondentia.By its
nature, bottomry was prone to insurance fraud. Taking
bottomry against a ship and valuable cargo was the first
type of fraud, while setting sail with a cheap cargo and
scuttling the ship to keep the loan and the cargo, and
pretending that the ship had sunk while it actually hid in a
distant port and acquired a new name and crew formed the
second type of fraud.

"Demosthenes's speech against Zenothemis" accuses the
titular shipper of the first type of fraud in the 4th century

The Insurance Times October 2023 17