Aegineticus

and he cherished so warmly my father's affection for him that at the death of his wife, who was without children, he remarried, taking as wife my father's cousin, as he did not wish to dissolve the affinity with us. But after he had lived with her for only a short time, he suffered the same bereavement as his former wife.

After this he married a woman of Seriphos, belonging to a family of greater consequence than might be expected of a native of their island.[*](The insignificance of Seriphos was proverbial; cf. Plat. Rep. 329e.) Of this marriage were born Sopolis, Thrasylochus, and a daughter, who is my wife. These were the only legitimate children left by Thrasyllus and he made these his heirs when he died.

Thrasylochus and I, having inherited from our fathers a friendship the intimacy of which I have recently mentioned, made the bond still closer. For during our childhood we were fonder of each other than of our brothers, and we would perform no sacrifice, make no pilgrimage, and celebrate no festival except in one another's company; and when we reached manhood we never opposed one another in any action undertaken, for we not only shared our private concerns but also held similar sentiments regarding public affairs, and we had the same intimates and guest-friends.

And why need I speak further of our intimacy at home?[*](That is, at Siphnos.) In truth, not even in exile did we care to be apart. Finally, when Thrasylochus was striken with the wasting disease and suffered a long illness—his brother Sopolis had previously died[*](Sopolis died in Lycia (cf. Isoc. 19.40).) and his mother and sister had not arrived[*](At Aegina.)—seeing him so completely destitute of companionship I nursed him with such unremitting care and devotion that he thought he could never repay me with a gratitude adequate to my services;

Nevertheless he left nothing undone to reward me, and when he was in a grievous condition and had given up all hope of life, he summoned witnesses, made me his adoptive son, and gave me his sister and his fortune. Please take the will.

It was in accordance with this law, citizens of Aegina, that Thrasylochus adopted me as his son, for I was his fellow-citizen and friend, in birth inferior to no one of the Siphnians, and had been reared and educated very much as he himself had been. I therefore do not see how he could have acted more consistently with the law, since the law insists that persons of the same status may be adopted. Please take also the law of Ceos,[*](The law of Ceos was valid also in Siphonos.) under which we were living.

If ,therefore, citizens of Aegina, my opponents were refusing to recognize the validity of these laws, but were able to produce in support of their case the law of their own country, their conduct would have been less astonishing. But the truth is that their own law is in agreement with those already read. Please take this document.