| Demosthenes, Speeches (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose; rhetoric] [word count] [lemma count] [Dem.]. | ||
| <<Dem. 43.16 | Dem. 43.26 (Greek) | >>Dem. 43.36 |
43.22To Hagnias was born a son, Polemon, and a daughter, Phylomachê, sister of Polemon by the same father and the same mother; and to Stratius, the brother of Hagnias, there were born Phanostratus and Charidemus, the grandfather of the defendant Macartatus. Now I ask you, men of the jury, which is nearer of kin and more closely related to Hagnias, his son Polemon and his daughter Phylomachê, or Charidemus, the son of Stratius, and nephew of Hagnias? For my part I think that to every one of us his son and daughter are more nearly related than his nephew; and not only with us does this hold good, but also among all other people whether Greeks or barbarians.
43.23Since, then, this is admitted, you will now easily follow the rest of the argument men of the jury, and you will see how arbitrary and how reckless these men are. To Polemon, son of Hagnias, was born a son, Hagnias, having the name of his grandfather Hagnias, and this second Hagnias died without issue.
43.24But from Phylomachê, the sister of Polemon, and Philagrus, to whom her brother Polemon had given her in marriage, he being his first cousin (for Philagrus was the son of Eubulides, the brother of Hagnias)—from Philagrus, I say, the cousin of Polemon, and Phylomachê the sister of Polemon, there was born Eubulides the father of this boy's mother. These sons, then, were born to Polemon and to Polemon's sister Phylomachê. But to Charidemus, the son of Stratius, there was born a son Theopompus, the father of the defendant Macartatus.
43.25Again, then, I ask you, men of the jury, which is nearer of kin and more closely related to the first Hagnias, Hagnias, the son of Polemon, and Eubulides, the son of Phylomachê and Philagrus, or Theopompus, the son of Charidemus and grandson of Stratius? I am of the opinion, men of the jury, that if the son and the daughter are the nearest of kin, so, too, the son's son and the daughter's son are more nearly related than the son of a nephew and one who is a member of another branch of the family.
43.26Well, to Theopompus was born a son, Macartatus, the defendant, and to Eubulides, the son of Phylomachê, and cousin of Hagnias on his father's side; this boy, who is to Hagnias the son of a first cousin on the father's side; since Phylomachê, the mother of Eubulides and Polemon, the father of Hagnias, were brother and sister, born of the same father and the same mother. But to Macartatus here, the son of Theopompus, there has been no issue which is both in the family of Hagnias and in that of Stratius.
43.27Such being the facts, this boy here has one of the titles mentioned in the law, and up to which the law ordains that the right of succession should extend; for he is the child of the first cousin of Hagnias, since his father Eubulides was cousin to Hagnias, whose inheritance is in question. Theopompus, on the contrary, the father of the defendant Macartatus, could not have appropriated to himself any one of the titles mentioned in the law, for he belonged to another branch of the family, that of Stratius.
43.28But it is not fitting, men of the jury, that any man whatsoever should possess the estate of Hagnias, one who belongs to another branch, so long as there is left any one of those born of the branch of Hagnias; no, nor is it right to expel such person by violence, as these men are trying to do, while they are themselves more distantly related, and not of the same branch of the family. For this, men of the jury, is the point upon which Theopompus, the father of the defendant Macartatus, misled the jury.
43.29Who, then, are those still surviving in the branch of Hagnias? Phylomachê, my wife, who is the daughter of Eubulides, the cousin of Hagnias, and this boy, who has been adopted into the family of Eubulides and Hagnias. Theopompus, however, the father of the defendant Macartatus, not being himself of the branch of Hagnias, told the jurymen a monstrous lie regarding Phylomachê, the sister of Polemon and the aunt of Hagnias, alleging that she was not the sister of Polemon, the son of Hagnias, by the same father and mother, and another in pretending that he himself was of the same family as Hagnias, whereas he had never belonged to it.
43.30All these assertions Theopompus made fearlessly, not producing any witness who would have been responsible to us, but having only his associates to corroborate what he said; for they were leagued with one another and did everything in concert, in order to rob the lady, the mother of this boy here, of the inheritance which you by your votes had decided to be hers.
43.31I wish now, men of the jury, to produce witnesses in support of the statements which I have made to you—first, to prove that Phylomachê, the daughter of Eubulides, won judgement for the estate of Hagnias as being the nearest of kin, and then to establish the rest of the facts.
Read the deposition. The deponents state that they were present before the arbitrator in the archonship of Nicophemus, note when Phylomachê, the daughter of Eubulides, won judgement for the estate of Hagnias against all who disputed her title.Deposition
43.32That Phylomachê, the daughter of Eubulides, won judgement for the estate of Hagnias, you have heard, men of the jury. And she won it, not by wrongful trickery or conspiracy, but in the fairest manner possible, since we proved that she was nearest of kin to Hagnias, whose estate is in question, being the daughter of his cousin on his father's side, and being of the same branch as Hagnias.
| Demosthenes, Speeches (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose; rhetoric] [word count] [lemma count] [Dem.]. | ||
| <<Dem. 43.16 | Dem. 43.26 (Greek) | >>Dem. 43.36 |
