| Demosthenes, Speeches (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose; rhetoric] [word count] [lemma count] [Dem.]. | ||
| <<Dem. 44.1 | Dem. 44.5 (Greek) | >>Dem. 44.15 |
44.1It 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.
44.2It 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.
44.3I 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.
44.4My 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.
Eleusis note ; of the three brothers Archippus lost his life at Methymna note while serving as trierarch, and Meidylides not long afterward married Mnesimache, the daughter of Lysippus of Crioa. note
44.10To 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, note 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.
44.11For 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.
44.5With 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; 44.6but 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. 44.7Very 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. 44.8And 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.
44.9To go back to the beginning, men of the jury, there were born to Euthymachus, of Otrynê, note 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
| Demosthenes, Speeches (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose; rhetoric] [word count] [lemma count] [Dem.]. | ||
| <<Dem. 44.1 | Dem. 44.5 (Greek) | >>Dem. 44.15 |
