in general, knows any of these transactions. All this would be a proof, but mere invective is none; and, if you compel my antagonist, judges, to prove the very facts, which he has averred to be true, you will make a pious decree according to the laws, and my clients will obtain substantial justice.

SPEECH THE SIXTH.

ON THE ESTATE OF APOLLODORUS.

THE ARGUMENT.

THERE were three brothers, Eupolis, Thrasyllus, and Mneson; the youngest of whom died without issue: the second left a son named APOLLODORUS. Eupolis, the surviving brother, was appointed guardian to his nephew, and had two daughters living, one of whom was married to Æschines, the other to Pronapis, the complainant in this cause.

The widow of Thrasyllus married Archedamus, who, perceiving that Apollodorus, his wife's son, was injured by his guardian, assisted him in applying to a court of justice, and obtained redress for him in two actions. This Archedamus had a daughter by the mother of Apollodorus, and that daughter, who married Lacratides, had a son, whom Apollodorus, on the death of his own son, adopted in his lifetime, and caused to be registered in the books of his kindred and ward by the name of Thrasyllus.

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APOLLODORUS died; and Pronapis, in right of his wife, claimed the estate of the deceased, alledging that Thrasyllus was not entered in the register according to the true intent of his uncle, but that the adoption was a mere fiction and artifice.

The cause is, in the language of the Ancients, conjectural; or, in the dialect of our bar, it is an issue," Whether Thrasyllus was really adopted by Apollodorus, or not."