Aegineticus

I have related the adventures in which I incurred danger indeed, yet suffered no harm; but I have also to speak of friendly services I rendered him which involved me in the greatest misfortunes. For when we had arrived at Melos, and Thrasylochus perceived that we were likely to remain there, he begged me to sail with him to Troezen[*](On the southern coast of the Saronic Gulf, in the northeastern part of the Peloponnese, near Epidaurus.) and by all means not to abandon him, mentioning his bodily infirmity and the multitude of his enemies, saying that without me he would not know how to manage his own affairs.

And although my mother was afraid because she had heard that Troezen was unhealthy and our guest-friends advised us to remain where we were, nevertheless we decided that we ought to satisfy his wish. No sooner had we arrived at Troezen than we were attacked by illnesses of such severity that I barely escaped with my own life, and within thirty days I buried my young sister fourteen years of age, and my mother not five days therereafter. In what state of mind do you think I was after such a change in my life?

I had previously been inexperienced in misfortune and I had only recently suffered exile and living an alien among foreigners, and had lost my fortune; in addition, I saw my mother and my sister driven from their native land and ending their lives in a foreign land among strangers. No one could justly begrudge it me, therefore, if I have received some benefit from the troublesome affairs of Thrasylochus; for it was to gratify him that I went to live in Troezen, where I experienced misfortunes so dire that I shall never be able to forget them.

Furthermore, there is one thing my opponents cannot say of me—that when Thrasylochus was prosperous I suffered all these woes, but that I abandoned him in his adversity. For it was precisely then that I gave clearer and stronger proof of my devotion to him. When, for instance, he settled in Aegina and fell ill of the malady which resulted in his death, I nursed him with a care such as no one else I know of has ever bestowed upon another. Most of the time he was very ill, yet still able to go about; finally he lay for six months bedridden.

And no one of his relations saw fit to share with me the drudgery of caring for him; no one even came to see him with the exception of his mother and sister; and they made the task more difficult; for they were ill when they came from Troezen, so that they themselves were in need of care. But although the others were thus indifferent, I did not grow weary nor did I leave the scene, but I nursed him with the help of one slave boy;

for no one of the domestics could stand it. For being by nature irascible, he became, because of his malady, still more difficult to handle. It should not occasion surprise, therefore, that these persons would not remain with him, but it is much more a cause for wonder that I was able to hold out in caring for a man sick of such a malady; for he was filled with pus for a long time, and was unable to leave his bed;

and his suffering was so great that we did not pass a single day without tears,[*](Cf. Isoc. 14.47 for the same expression.) but kept up our lamentations both for the hardships we both had to endure, and for our exile and our isolation. And there was no intermission at any time; for it was impossible to leave him or to seem to neglect him—to me this would have seemed more dreadful than the woes which afflicted us.

I wish I could make clearly apparent to you my conduct with respect to him; for in that case I think that you would not endure even a word from my opponents. The truth is, it is not easy to describe the duties involved in my care of the invalid, duties that were very hard, very difficult to endure, most disagreeably toilsome, and exacting an unremitting care. But do you yourselves consider what loss of sleep, what miseries are the inevitable accompaniment of a prolonged nursing of a malady like his.

In truth, in my own case, I was reduced to such a condition that all my friends who visited me expressed fear that I too would perish with the dying man and they advised me to take care, saying that the majority of those who had nursed this disease themselves fell victims to it also. My reply to them was this—that I would much prefer to die than to see him perish before his fated day for lack of a friend to nurse him.

And although my behavior was as I have described, this woman has had the hardihood to contest with me his fortune, she who never even saw fit to visit him during his long illness, though she had daily information about his condition, and though the journey was easy for her. To think that they will now attempt to “brother” him,[*](A)DELFI/ZEIN, a rare word, “to call brother.”) as if the effect of calling the dead man by a mane of closer kinship would not be to make her shortcomings seem worse and more shocking!

Why, when he was at the point of death, and when she saw all our fellow-citizens who were in Troezen sailing to Aegina to take part in his funeral, she did not even at that moment come, but was so cruel and heartless in conduct that while she did not see fit to come to his funeral, yet, less than ten days thereafter she arrived to claim the property he had left, as if she were related to his money and not to him!

And if she will admit that her hatred for him was so bitter that this conduct was reasonable, then Thrasylochus would be considered not to have been ill-advised in preferring to leave his property to his friends rather than to this woman; but if there existed no variance between them and yet she was so neglectful of him and so unkind toward him, surely with greater justice would she be deprived of her own possessions than become heir to his.

Bear in mind that, so far as she was concerned, he had no care during his illness, nor when he died was he thought worthy of the customary funeral rites, whereas it was through me that he obtained both. Surely you will justly cast your votes in favor, not of those who claim blood-relationship yet in their conduct have acted like enemies, but with much greater propriety you will side with those who, though having no title of relationship, yet showed themselves, when the deceased was in misfortune, more nearly akin than the nearest relatives.

My opponents say that they do not doubt that Thrasylochus left the will, but they assert that it is not honorable and proper. And yet, citizens of Aegina, how could anyone have given better or greater evidence of interest in the disposal of his own property? He did not leave his home without heirs and he has shown due gratitude to his friends and, further, he made his mother and his sister possessors, not only of their own property, but of mine also by giving the latter to me as wife and by making me, by adoption, the son of the former.

Would he have acted more wisely if he had taken the alternative course—if he had failed to appoint a protector for his mother, and if he had made no mention of me, but had abandoned his sister to chance and permitted the name of his family to perish?

But perhaps I was unworthy of being adopted as a son by Thrasylochus and of receiving his sister in marriage. All the Siphnians would bear witness, however, that my ancestors were foremost of the citizens there in birth, in wealth, in reputation, and in general standing. For who were thought worthy of higher offices, or made greater contributions, or served as choregi[*](A choregus was a citizen who defrayed the expenses of bringing out a chorus. It is of interest to learn that the institution of the choregia was in effect on the island of Sophnos, as it was also at Ceos.) more handsomely, or discharged other special public services with greater magnificence? What family in Siphnos has furnished more kings?[*](These “kings” probably had only religious functions; cf. the Archon Basileus at Athens.)

Thrasylochus, therefore, even if I had never spoken to him, would reasonably have wished to give his sister to me just for these reasons; and I, even if I had not possessed any of these advantages, but had been the lowest of the citizens, would justly have been esteemed by him as deserving of the greatest recompenses by reason of the services I had rendered him.

I believe, moreover, that in making this disposition of his estate he did what was most pleasing to his brother Sopolis also. For Sopolis also hated this woman and regarded her as ill-disposed toward his interests, whereas he valued me above all his friends. He showed this feeling for me in many ways and in particular when our companions in exile determined, with the help of their auxiliary troops, to capture the city. For when he was designated leader with full powers he both chose me as secretary and appointed me treasurer of all funds, and when we were about to engage in battle, he placed me next to himself.

And consider how greatly he profited thereby; for when our attack on the city met with ill success, and the retreat did not succeed as we desired, and when he was wounded, unable to walk and in a faint condition, I and my servant carried him off on our shoulders to the ship. Consequently he often said to many persons that I was solely responsible for his coming through alive.

Yet what greater benefaction than this could a man receive? Moreover, when he had sailed to Lycia and died there, this woman, a few days after the news of his death, was sacrificing and holding festival, and had no shame before his surviving brother, so little regard did she have for the dead man, but I instituted mourning for him in the custom prescribed for relatives.