Against Diogeiton

But yet, had he wished to act justly by the children, he was free to act in accordance with the laws which deal with orphans for the guidance of incapable as well as capable guardians: he might have farmed out the estate and so got rid of a load of cares, or have purchased land and used the income for the children’s support; whichever course he had taken, they would have been as rich as anyone in Athens. But the fact is, in my opinion, that at no time has he had any notion of turning their fortune into real estate, but has meant to keep their property for himself, assuming that his own wickedness ought to be heir of the wealth of the deceased.

Most monstrous of all, gentlemen of the jury, he asserts that in sharing with Alexis, son of Aristodicus, the service of equipping a warship, he paid a contribution of forty-eight minae, and has entered half of this against these orphan children, whom the State has not only exempted during their childhood, but has freed from all public services for a year after they have been certified to be of age. Yet he, their grandfather, illegally exacts from his daughter’s children one half of his expenses in equipping a warship!