for I have borne arms in all your expeditions, and continue to obey the commands of my country, as men of my age fhould obey them. For the fake, therefore, of Apollodorus and his father, as well as of me and my family, confider our cause with attention; especially as our adverfaries have never furnished a single galley, but have diffipated and reduced to nothing an eftate of five talents: whereas we have already filled your moft chargeable offices, and will again fill them with eagerness, if you effectuate the intention of my uncle, and give me the estate, which he appointed me to inherit. That I may not feem tedious in expatiating longer on these facts, I will defcend, as foon as I have fuccinctly recapitulated to you the feveral points, on which we reft our respective claims.

As my own mother was the fifter of Apollodorus, as an intimate friendship fubfifted between us, never interrupted by any disagreement, I, whom he adopted as his fon, when he was living and in his perfect fenfes, I, who was enrolled among those of the fame family and ward with himself, demand the estate which he gave me, and defire that these men may not have it in their power to extinguish so illuftrious a family but what are the pretenfions of Pronapis? He first took a moiety of the fortune, which had been left by his wife's brother, and

186 ON THE ESTATE OF APOLLODORUS.

now he claims this inheritance, though others are more nearly related to the deceased than his wife can pretend to be: yet he has neither ap pointed a son to supply the place of his brother, but has fuffered his family to become extinct, nor would he have acted otherwife with regard to my uncle; uncle; and he makes this claim, though Apollodorus had fo great an aversion to him, and a reconciliation never afterwards took place between them. This, judges, you will confider; and will also recollect, that I am the nephew of the deceased, and that the wife of Pronapis is only his coufin: that she has inherited two estates, whilft I fucceed to this alone as a fon by adoption; that she laftly was not well inclined to him, whofe property we claim, but that I and my father were his real benefactors. Thus reflecting and reasoning with yourselves, give a sentence agreeable to juftice: it would be fuperfluous to add more; for I am perfuaded, that no part of my argument has escaped your attention.

SPEECH THE SEVENTH.

ON THE ESTATE OF CIRON.

THE ARGUMENT.

CIRON being dead without leaving a son, his nephew entered upon his estate; and the clients of Isæus brought an action to recover it, insisting that they had the better title as grandsons of the deceased by his legitimate daughter: there are two questions in the cause, an issue of fact, whether the complainants were lawfully descended from Ciron or not; and an issue in law, whether a daughter's or a brother's son has more right to the property of an intestate. The writer of the Greek argument to this speech appears to have mistaken the law of Athens, which will be more fully explained in the commentary.