On the Estate of Philoctemon

And Philoctemon, ashamed at his fathers folly but at a loss how to deal with the embarrassment of the moment, made no objection. An agreement having been thus concluded, and the child having been introduced on these terms, Euctemon gave up his project of marriage, proving thereby that the object of his threatened marriage was not to procure children but to obtain the introduction of this child into the ward.

For what need had he to marry, Androcles, if these children had been born to him from a marriage with an Athenian citizen, as you have affirmed them to have been in your evidence? If they were legitimate, who could prevent him from introducing them? And why did he introduce them on special terms, when the law ordains that all the legitimate sons have an equal right to share in their father's property?

And why did he introduce the elder child on special terms, but said not a word about the younger child during the lifetime of Philoctemon either to Philoctemon or to his other relatives? Yet you have explicitly borne witness that they are legitimate and heirs to the property of Euctemon. In proof of the truth of these assertions, read the depositions.

Depositions

It was after this, then, that Philoctemon died by the enemy's hands while commanding a trireme off Chios.[*](Probably about 376 B.C.) Some time later Euctemon informed his sons-in-law that he wished to make a written record of his arrangement with his son and place it in safe place. Phanostratus was on the point of setting out with Timotheus[*](This expedition under Timotheus probably took place in 375 or 373 B.C.) in command of a trireme, and his ship lying at anchor at Munychia,[*](A small harbor on the east of the Peiraic peninsula in which part of the Athenian navy was docked.) and his brother-in-law Chaereas was there bidding him farewell. Euctemon, taking certain persons with him, came to where the ship was anchored, and having drawn up a document detailing the conditions under which he introduced the child, deposited it in the presence of those men with his relative Pythodorus of Cephisia.

The very fact that he acted thus is sufficient proof, gentlemen, that Euctemon was not dealing with them as legitimate children, as Androcles has declared in his evidence; for no one ever makes a gift by will of anything to the sons of his own body, because the law of itself gives his father's estate to the son and does not even allow anyone who has legitimate children to dispose of his property.

When the document had remained deposited for almost two years and Chaereas had died, my opponents, having come under the influence of Alce and seeing that the property was going to ruin and that the old age and imbecility of Euctemon gave them an excellent opportunity, made a combined plan of attack.