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poor both today and for the future; but having borrowed you will be more grievously worn out, with the interest intensifying the poverty. And now indeed no one blames you for being poor; for the evil is involuntary; but if you are liable for interest, there is no one who will not censure your thoughtlessness. Let us not then, in addition to involuntary evils, draw upon ourselves also a voluntary evil out of our own folly. It is of a childish mind not to provide for oneself from what is at hand, but, having entrusted oneself to uncertain hopes, to dare manifest and indisputable harm. Consider now from where you will repay. From what you receive? But it is not enough both for your need and for the repayment. And if indeed you also reckon the interest, from where will the money be multiplied to such an extent, so as on the one hand to meet your own need, and on the other to pay off the principal, and besides also to generate interest? But you will not repay the loan from what you receive. But from some other source? Let us then await those hopes, and not come, like fish to the bait. For just as they swallow the hook with the food, so also we, for the sake of money, are ensnared by interest. Being poor causes no shame. Why then do we add to ourselves the reproaches that come from being in debt? No one heals wounds with a wound, nor cures evil with evil, nor corrects poverty with interest. Are you rich? Do not borrow. 29.273 Are you poor? Do not borrow. For if indeed you are well-off, you do not need a loan; but if you have nothing, you will not repay the loan. Do not give your life over to afterthought, lest you ever bless the days before interest. In this one thing let us, the poor, differ from the rich: in freedom from care. And let us laugh at them while they lie awake, while we ourselves are sleeping; and at them who are always constrained and anxious, while we ourselves are without anxiety and relaxed. The debtor, however, is both poor and full of many cares; sleepless by night, sleepless by day, gloomy all the time; now appraising his own property, now the luxurious houses, the fields of the rich, the garments of those he meets, the vessels of those who are feasting. 'If these things were mine,' he says, 'I would sell them for so much, and I would be rid of the interest.' These things sit in his heart even at night, and by day have seized his thoughts. If you knock on the door, the debtor is under the bed. Someone ran in violently; and his heart pounded. Does the dog bark? And he is drenched in sweat, and seized with agony, and looks around for a place to flee. When the deadline approaches, he worries about what lie he will tell; what excuse he will invent to put off the lender. Think of yourself not only as receiving, but also as being asked to repay. Why do you yoke yourself to a many-offspringed beast? They say hares both give birth and nurse and conceive again at the same time. And for usurers, money is lent and is born and grows up underneath at the same time. For you have not yet received it into your hands, and you are asked for this month's interest. And this, being borrowed again, has nourished another evil, and that one another, and the evil is infinite. For this reason also this form of greed has been deemed worthy of this name. For *tokos* [interest/offspring], as I think, has been so called because of the multiple offspring of the evil. For from where else? Or perhaps it is called *tokos* [birth-pang] because of the pains and griefs which it is its nature to produce in the souls of those who borrow. For as the birth-pang is to the woman in labor, so the deadline presents itself to the one in debt. Interest upon interest, a wicked offspring of wicked parents. Let these be called the offspring of vipers, the progeny of interest. They say that vipers are born by eating through their mother's womb. And interest payments are brought forth having devoured the houses of the debtors. Seeds grow over time, and animals are brought to term over time; but interest 29.276 is born today, and today begins to give birth. Of living things, those that give birth quickly quickly cease from giving birth; but money, taking a swift start of its increase, accepts an unending addition to its amount. Each of the things that grow, whenever it has arrived at its own

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πένης καὶ σήμερον καὶ πρὸς τὸ ἐφεξῆς· δανεισάμενος δὲ χαλεπώτερον ἐκτρυχωθήσῃ, τοῦ τόκου τὴν πενίαν προσεπιτείναντος. Καὶ νῦν μὲν οὐδεὶς ἐγκαλεῖ σοι πτωχεύοντι· ἀκούσιον γὰρ τὸ κακόν· ἐὰν δὲ τόκοις ὑπεύθυνος ᾖς, οὐκ ἔστιν ὅστις οὐ μέμψεταί σου τῇ ἀβουλίᾳ. Μὴ οὖν πρὸς τοῖς ἀκουσίοις κακοῖς ἔτι καὶ αὐ θαίρετον κακὸν ἐκ τῆς ἡμετέρας ἀνοίας ἐπισπασώμε θα. Νηπίας φρενὸς μὴ ἐκ τῶν παρόντων ἑαυτὸν περιστέλλειν, ἀλλ' ἀδήλοις ἐλπίσιν ἐπιτρέψαντα φα νερᾶς βλάβης καὶ ἀναντιῤῥήτου κατατολμᾷν. Ἤδη βούλευσαι πόθεν ἀποτίσεις. Ἀφ' ὧν λαμβάνεις; Ἀλλ' οὐκ ἐξαρκεῖ καὶ πρὸς τὴν χρείαν καὶ πρὸς τὴν ἔκτισιν. Ἐὰν δὲ δὴ καὶ τοὺς τόκους λογίσῃ, πόθεν τὰ χρήματα εἰς τοσοῦτον πολυπλασιασθήσεται, ὥστε ἰδίᾳ μέν σου θεραπεύειν τὴν χρείαν, ἰδίᾳ δὲ ἐκπληροῦν τὸ κεφάλαιον, ἔξωθεν δὲ καὶ τόκους ἀπογεννᾷν; Ἀλλ' οὐκ ἐξ ὧν λαμβάνεις ἀποδώσεις τὸ δάνειον. Ἑτέρω θεν δέ; Ἐκείνας οὖν ἀναμένωμεν τὰς ἐλπίδας, καὶ μὴ ἔλθωμεν, ὥσπερ οἱ ἰχθύες ἐπὶ τὸ δέλεαρ. Ὥσπερ γὰρ ἐκεῖνοι μετὰ τῆς τροφῆς τὸ ἄγκιστρον καταπί νουσιν, οὕτω καὶ ἡμεῖς διὰ τὰ χρήματα τοῖς τόκοις περιπειρόμεθα. Οὐδεμίαν αἰσχύνην τὸ πένεσθαι προξενεῖ. Τί οὖν τὰ ἐκ τοῦ ὀφείλειν ὀνείδη ἑαυτοῖς προστιθέμεθα; Οὐδεὶς τραύματα τραύματι θερα πεύει, οὐδὲ κακῷ τὸ κακὸν ἰᾶται, οὐδὲ πενίαν τό κοις ἐπανορθοῦται. Πλούσιος εἶ; μὴ δανείζου. 29.273 Πένης εἶ; μὴ δανείζου. Εἰ μὲν γὰρ εὐπορεῖς, οὐ χρῄ ζεις δανείσματος· εἰ δὲ οὐδὲν ἔχεις, οὐκ ἀπο τίσεις τὸ δάνειον. Μὴ δῷς σεαυτοῦ τὸν βίον εἰς ὑστεροβουλίαν, μήποτε μακαρίσῃς τὰς πρὸ τῶν τό κων ἡμέρας. Ἑνὶ τούτῳ διαφέρωμεν τῶν πλου τούντων οἱ πένητες, τῇ ἀμεριμνίᾳ. Καὶ καταγελῶμεν αὐτῶν ἀγρυπνούντων, αὐτοὶ καθεύδοντες· καὶ τῶν συνεστώτων ἀεὶ καὶ φροντιζόντων, αὐτοὶ ἀφροντι στοῦντες καὶ ἀνειμένοι. Ὁ μέντοι ὀφείλων καὶ πένης ἐστὶ καὶ πολυμέριμνος· ἄϋπνος νύκτωρ, ἄϋ πνος μεθ' ἡμέραν, σύννους πάντα τὸν χρόνον· νῦν μὲν τὴν ἑαυτοῦ οὐσίαν ἀποτιμώμενος, νῦν δὲ τὰς οἰ κίας τὰς πολυτελεῖς, τοὺς ἀγροὺς τῶν πλουσίων, τὰς ἐσθῆτας τῶν ἐντυγχανόντων, τὰ σκεύη τῶν ἑστιών των. Εἰ ταῦτα ἐμὰ ἦν, φησὶν, ἀπεδιδόμην τόσου καὶ τόσου, καὶ ἀπηλλασσόμην τοῦ τόκου. Ταῦτα αὐ τοῦ καὶ νύκτωρ ἐγκαθέζεται τῇ καρδίᾳ, καὶ μεθ' ἡμέραν τὰς ἐννοίας κατείληφεν. Ἐὰν τὴν θύραν πα τάξῃς, ὁ χρεώστης ὑπὸ τὴν κλίνην. Σφοδρῶς εἰσ έδραμέ τις· τοῦ δὲ ἐπάταξεν ἡ καρδία. Ὑλακτεῖ ὁ κύων; ὁ δὲ ἱδρῶτι περιῤῥεῖται, καὶ ἀγωνίᾳ συν έχεται, καὶ περισκοπεῖ πόθεν φύγῃ. Ὅταν ἡ προ θεσμία προσάγῃ, μεριμνᾷ τί ψεύσεται· ποίαν πλα σάμενος πρόφασιν τὸν δανειστὴν διακρούσεται. Μὴ μόνον λαμβάνοντα σεαυτὸν ἐννόει, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀπαιτού μενον. Τί πολυτόκῳ θηρίῳ σεαυτὸν παραζευ γνύεις; Τοὺς λαγωούς φασι καὶ τίκτειν ὁμοῦ καὶ τρέ φειν καὶ ἐπικυΐσκεσθαι. Καὶ τοῖς τοκογλύφοις τὰ χρήματα ὁμοῦ δανείζεται καὶ γεννᾶται καὶ ὑπο φύεται. Οὔπω γὰρ ἐδέξω εἰς χεῖρας, καὶ τοῦ παρόν τος μηνὸς ἀπῃτήθης τὴν ἐργασίαν. Καὶ τοῦτο πάλιν δανεισθὲν, ἕτερον κακὸν ἐξέθρεψε, κἀκεῖνο ἕτερον, καὶ τὸ κακὸν εἰς ἄπειρον. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο καὶ τῆς προσ ηγορίας ταύτης ἠξίωται τὸ εἶδος τοῦτο τῆς πλεον εξίας. Τόκος γὰρ, ὡς οἶμαι, διὰ τὴν πολυγονίαν τοῦ κακοῦ προσηγόρευται. Πόθεν γὰρ ἄλλοθεν; Ἢ τάχα τόκος λέγεται διὰ τὰς ὠδῖνας καὶ λύπας, ἃς ἐμποιεῖν ταῖς ψυχαῖς τῶν δανεισαμένων πέφυκεν. Ὡς γὰρ ἡ ὠδὶς τῇ τικτούσῃ, οὕτως ἡ προθεσμία τῷ ὑπόχρεῳ παρίσταται. Τόκος ἐπὶ τόκῳ, πονηρῶν γο νέων πονηρὸν ἔκγονον. Ταῦτα λεγέσθω γεννήματα ἐχιδνῶν, τὰ τῶν τόκων ἀποκυήματα. Τὰς ἐχίδνας λέγουσι τὴν γαστέρα τῆς μητρὸς διεσθιούσας τί κτεσθαι. Καὶ οἱ τόκοι τοὺς οἴκους τῶν ὀφειλόντων ἐκφαγόντες ἀπογεννῶνται. Τὰ σπέρματα χρόνῳ φύε ται, καὶ τὰ ζῶα χρόνῳ τελεσφορεῖται· ὁ δὲ τόκος 29.276 σήμερον γεννᾶται, καὶ σήμερον τοῦ τίκτειν ἄρχεται. Τῶν ζώων τὰ ταχὺ τίκτοντα ταχὺ τοῦ γεννᾷν παύεται· τὰ δὲ χρήματα, ταχεῖαν λαμβάνοντα τοῦ πλεονα σμοῦ τὴν ἀρχὴν, ἀτέλεστον ἐπιδέχεται τὴν εἰς τὸ πλεῖον προσθήκην. Τῶν αὐξανομένων ἕκαστον, ἐπει δὰν πρὸς τὸ οἰκεῖον ἀφίκηται