Against Leochares

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.