1. If the points in dispute, gentlemen of the jury, were not great, I
should not have allowed these to come to you to court, believing it a
disgrace to have differences with one's relatives, and knowing that both
such offenders seem to you to be all the worse, and those who cannot bear
to be ill-treated by their relatives. But then, gentlemen of the jury,
these have been defrauded of much money, and have suffered terribly at
the hands of those for whom it was least proper, and they have appealed
to me, their brother-in-law, and so I must speak in their behalf. 2. I
married their sister, a granddaughter of Diogeiton, and having asked both
of them many times, at first I persuaded them to entrust the case to
friends, thinking it important that outsiders should not know of their
affairs. But when Diogeiton could not bring himself to trust to any of
his friends (to decide) about that which he had plainly been proved to
hold, but preferred to defend suits, and to bring them if they were not
brought (against him), and to run the greatest risks rather than by doing
justice be rid of the charges in regard to them, (3) I beg of you, if I
shall prove that they were treated under the guardianship of their
grandfather worse than any one ever was in the city even by those not
related, (I beg of you) to assist them to get justice, and if I do not
prove it, trust him in everything, and believe me wrong here-after. I
will try to tell you the whole story.
4. There were (two) brothers, gentlemen of the jury, Diodotus and
Diogeiton, with the same father and mother, and they divided the ready
money, and shared in the real estate. Now Diodotus made much money in
business, and Diogeiton persuaded him to marry his only daughter, and
they had two sons and a daughter. 5. Some time after this, Diodotus,
having enlisted with Thrasyllus in the infantry, called his wife, who was
his niece, and her father, who was his own father-in-law and son of the
same father, the grandfather and uncle of his little ones, and thinking
on account of these ties he could entrust his children to no one's care
more fittingly, he made a compact with him, and deposited with him five
talents of silver. 6. And he showed lent out on bottomry seven talents
and forty minae, and two thousand (drachmae) invested in the Chersonesus.
And he provided in case of his death a talent to be given to his wife
together with the household goods, and a talent to his daughter. And he
left for his wife twenty minae and thirty Cyzicene staters. 7. After
doing this, and leaving schedules at home, he went to join Thrasyllus.
And when he died in Ephesus, Diogeiton concealed his death from his
daughter, and took the documents which he had left sealed, claiming that
he must collect by these papers the money lent out on bottomry. 8. And
when after a time he told them of his death, and they had performed the
customary rites, for the first year they lived in Piraeus, for their
store of provisions had been left there. But when these began to give
out, he sent the sons up to the city, and married off their mother,
giving her (as dowry) five thousand drachmae, a thousand less than her
husband had appointed for her. 9. Eight years after this the elder of the
boys passed his examination (_became a citizen_), and Diogeiton
summoned them and said that their father had left them twenty silver
minae and thirty staters. "So I have spent much of my own property for
bringing you up. And as long as I had money, it made no difference to me;
but now I myself am short of funds. So you, as you are of age and have
become a citizen, are to look out to get your own living." 10. After they
heard this they were surprised, and went weeping to their mother, and
taking her with them they came to me, feeling terribly bitter because of
their trouble, and (really) miserably turned out of doors. With tears
they called on me not to allow them to be cheated out of their
inheritance and made paupers, cruelly treated by one who ought least of
all (to have done it), but to aid them both for my wife's sake and their
own. 11. It were a long story to tell you the sorrow in my house during
that time. Finally their mother begged and entreated, me to bring
together her father and their friends, saying that, although formerly
unaccustomed to speak before men, the magnitude of her misfortunes
compelled her to declare to us all their miseries. 12. And in my
indignation I went to Hegemon who had married the daughter of this
(Diogeiton), and I went into the matter with other interested persons,
and summoned him (_Diogeiton_) to an examination on what he had
done. At first Diogeiton was unwilling, but at last was compelled by his
friends. And when we had assembled, the woman asked him in what possible
spirit (_how he had the heart to_) he had treated the boys so,
"being (as you are) their father's brother, my father, and both uncle and
grandfather to them. 13. And if you feel no shame before men, you ought
to fear the gods," she said, "for when he sailed away you took five
talents which he had deposited (with you). And for (the truth of) these
things, I am willing to imprecate my children, both these and those I
have had later, wherever you may please. Truly I am not so wretched nor
think so much of money as to die having sworn falsely on my children, and
take away unjustly the property of my father." 14. Then she proved that
he had received seven talents four thousand drachmae, and she showed the
accounts of this. For in changing residence, when he moved from Collytus
to the house of Phaedrus, the boys found an account-book which had been
thrown away, and brought it to her. 15. This proved that he had received
a hundred minae loaned out on interest on a mortgage, and two thousand
drachmae, and valuable furniture; also there came in every year corn from
the Chersonesus. "And then did you go so far," she said, "with so much
money in your possession, as to say that their father left (only) two
thousand drachmae and thirty staters, the very amount which I inherited
at his death and gave over to you? 16. And you even thrust out of their
own house these grandsons of yours, thinly clad, barefooted, without an
attendant, without beds, without cloaks, without the furniture their
father had left them, without the deposit he entrusted to you. 17. And
now you are supporting at great expense the children of my stepmother,
happy children; and in this you do well, but you are wronging my
children, whom you have driven from the house, and try to make out that
they are poor instead of rich. And in such deeds you neither fear the
gods, nor are ashamed before me, your daughter, who understand you, nor
do you remember your brother, but care for your brother more than
everything else." 18. Then, gentlemen of the jury, as so many dreadful
charges were made by this woman, all of us who were present were greatly
affected by what he had done, and by her words, as we saw what the boys
had suffered, and realized how unworthy a guardian of the property the
dead had left. Then feeling how difficult it was to find a worthy person
to entrust one's affairs to, no one of those present, gentlemen of the
jury, could speak, but went off in silence, weeping no less than the
sufferers. So first let the witnesses come in.