Against Leochares

It is the fault of Leochares, the defendant, men of the jury, that he is himself being brought to trial, and that I, despite my youth, am addressing you, for he claims the right to inherit what does not belong to him, and has made a false affidavit of objections before the archon in support of his claim.

It was incumbent upon us—since the law grants the right of succession to those nearest of kin, and we are relatives of Archiades, who originally left the estate—not to suffer his house to become extinct, and others, who had no right whatever to it, to inherit his property; while the defendant, who was neither a son by blood of the deceased nor a son adopted according to your laws, as I shall show, has thus recklessly made a false affidavit, and is seeking to rob me of the inheritance.

I beg you, men of the jury, to come to the aid of my father and myself, if our pleading shall seem just, and not suffer men who are poor and without influence to be crushed by the lawless men marshalled against us. For we have come before you relying upon the truth, well content if we are permitted to obtain our legal rights; while our adversaries have from the first never ceased to rely upon intrigue and the spending of money, and very naturally in my opinion; for they readily make expenditures from funds which belong to others, and so have provided themselves with a host of people who will speak in their behalf and give false testimony.

My father here (for the truth shall be told you) comes into court with manifest signs that he is, as you are all aware, a poor man, and that he knows nothing of pleading in court; for he has long been a public crier in Peiraeus, and this is not only a sign of the poverty which is common to man, but also of the fact that he has no time to meddle with the law; for a man so employed has to spend the whole day in the market-place. If you bear this in mind, you will be forced to conclude that, if we did not rely upon the justice of our cause, we should never have come before you at all.

With reference to matters of this nature you will gain clearer information in the course of my address, but I think I must now inform you about the affidavit and the case at issue. If, men of the jury, Leochares, basing his defence upon the affidavit itself, were going to prove that he is the lawfully born son of Archiades, there would be no need of many words, nor any need that I should trace our family line back to its origin;

but since the matters sworn to in the affidavit are of a different nature, and most of the arguments of our adversaries will be devoted to proving that they were adopted and should properly inherit the estate by right of descent as lawful children, it is necessary for this reason, men of the jury, to go back a little way and instruct you regarding the pedigree; for when you understand this matter clearly, there will be no danger of your being misled by their arguments.

Very well then, the case before you is one to settle the title to an inheritance. Our claim to the estate is based upon descent, theirs upon adoption. We admit here in your presence that all adoptions, if rightly made in accordance with the laws, ought to be valid. Bear in mind, therefore, the bases upon which our respective claims rest, and if they prove to you that the laws grant what they have sworn in their affidavit, adjudge the estate to them.

And even if they have not the support of the laws, but it seems to you that what they say is in accordance with justice and generosity, even so we withdraw our claim. However, that you may know that, while we are by descent the nearest of kin, we do not rest our case upon this alone, but upon all the other grounds as well, I will first instruct you regarding the family itself from which the inheritance comes; for I am sure that, if you follow with clear understanding this phase of the matter at issue, you will have no difficulty in grasping any of the other facts.

To go back to the beginning, men of the jury, there were born to Euthymachus, of Otrynê,[*](See note 1 above.) three sons, Meidylides and Archippus and Archiades, and a daughter whose name was Archidicê. After the death of their father the brothers gave Archidicê in marriage to Leostratus of Eleusis[*](Eleusis was a deme of the tribe Hippothontis.) ; of the three brothers Archippus lost his life at Methymna[*](Methymna was a town in Lesbos.) while serving as trierarch, and Meidylides not long afterward married Mnesimache, the daughter of Lysippus of Crioa.[*](Crioa was a deme of the tribe Antiochis.)

To him there was born a daughter, Cleitomachê by name, whom he wished to give in marriage to his own brother, who was still unmarried; but since Archiades declared that he did not wish to marry, and for this reason allowed the property to remain undivided, and lived by himself in Salamis, Meidylides at length gave his daughter in marriage to Aristoteles of Pallenê,[*](Pallenê was a deme of the tribe Antiochis.) my grandfather. Of them were born three sons, Aristodemus here, my father, and Habronichus, my uncle, and Meidylides, who is now dead. Our right of inheritance, based on kinship in the family to which the estate belongs, is, men of the jury, substantially this.

For we are the nearest of kin to Archiades in the male line, and, as we deemed it right according to this law that we should inherit his estate, and not allow the family to be brought to extinction, we brought suit for the inheritance before the archon. Our opponents, who hold the property without right, have now filed an affidavit of objections, basing their entire claim upon adoption, but alleging also that they are near of kin.

Now, with regard to this adoption, we will show you plainly later on what its character was; but with reference to blood relationship, I must prove to you that they are not nearer of kin than we. One thing is admitted, that in the matter of inheritance males and those descended from males have the precedence, for the law explicitly gives the inheritance as their due to the nearest of kin in the male line, when there are no children. Well, it is we who answer this description; for Archiades is admitted to have died without issue, and we are the nearest of kin to him in the male line.

And furthermore, we are also his nearest of kin in the female line; for Meidylides was the brother of Archiades, and the daughter of Meidylides was the mother of my father, so that Archiades, for whose inheritance we are now prosecuting our claim, is uncle (their fathers having been brothers) to the mother of my father, having this relationship in the male line, not in the female line. But Leostratus here is in kinship further removed, and is related to Archiades on the female side; for the mother of Leocrates, the father of the defendant, was niece to the Archiades in question and to Meidylides, as descendants of whom we claim the right to win the inheritance.

First, men of the jury, to prove that our pedigree is as I have stated, the clerk shall read you the depositions, and thereafter the law itself which awards inheritances to the families and to those nearest of kin in the male line. For, I take it, these are the essential points in the case and the matters upon which you cast your vote under oath.

(To the clerk.) Call the witnesses up here, please, and read the law.

The Witnesses. The Law

Matters concerning their pedigree and concerning ours, men of the jury, stand thus, and so it is right that those who have proved on the basis of the affidavits themselves that they are nearer of kin, should have the inheritance, and that the madness of the one who made the affidavit of objections should not prove stronger than your laws. For if they lay stress on the adoption, the nature of which I shall make clear to you, yet surely after the death without issue of the adopted son, when the house up to the filing of our suit had become extinct, it is right that those who are nearest of kin should receive the inheritance, and that you should give your aid, not to those citizens who are able to get up the strongest backing, but to those who are suffering wrong.

If it had been in our power, after setting forth matters regarding the pedigree and the affidavit itself, to leave the platform, and to have no need of further words, since practically the most important arguments would have been advanced, we should not trouble you further. But since our opponents will not rely upon the laws, but through having forestalled us and got some control of the situation long ago, and through having entered into possession of the estate, will use these facts as proofs, and declare that they are the heirs, it is perhaps necessary to discuss these matters as well, and to prove that of all humankind our opponents are the most arbitrary.

To go back to the beginning, men of the jury, Meidylides and Archiades gave their sister in marriage to Leostratus of Eleusis; and after a time from this sister of theirs, thus given in marriage, there was born Leocrates, the Iather of the defendant Leostratus; observe how distantly related he is to Archiades, regarding whom they have filed the affidavit of objections. When matters were as I have stated, Archiades did not marry, but his brother Meidylides, the grandfather of my father here, did marry.

They made as yet no division of the property, but, both having enough to live on, Meidylides continued to live in the city, and Archiades made his home in Salamis. Not long afterward, when Meidylides, my father’s grandfather, happened to go on a journey out of the country, Archiades fell sick, and died during the absence of Meidylides, being still unmarried. What is the proof of this? A maiden bearing an urn for water[*](We are told by Pollux Onomasticon 8.66 that the figure of a maiden bearing a water-pitcher was placed over the tombs of men who died unmarried. Other authorities state that the figure was that of a youth, not of a maiden.) stands upon the tomb of Archiades.

At this juncture Leocrates, the father of Leostratus here, on the pretext of his relationship on the female side, got himself adopted as son to Archiades, and so entered into possession of the estate, as though he had been adopted by Archiades during his lifetime. When Meidylides returned, he was incensed at what had been done, and was in a mood to enter suit against Leocrates; but under the persuasion of his relatives and their pleas that he should suffer Leocrates to remain in the family as the son by adoption of Archiades, he yielded the point,—not through losing his case in court, but absolutely through being deceived by these men here and partly also through giving way to the persuasion of his relatives.

After this experience Meidylides died, and Leocrates continued in possession of the estate of Archiades, and conducted himself as heir for many years, as being his adopted son; and we, on our part, inasmuch as Meidylides had made this concession, refrained from action. No long time afterwards, however,—and now, men of the jury, pay close heed to what I am about to say—