Speeches, addresses, etc., Greek -- Translations into English
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
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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