larger than this; but I fhall have fome other occafion to call them to account for the goods, which they have embezzled. Now what is my present estate? A farm in Enea worth only fifty minas, and the inheritance of Hagnias amounting to two talents and fifty minas, which fums together are less by one hundred and ten minas than the fortune of this youth in this calculation too I have comprized the effects of my fon, whom I emancipated, but have not added to the oppofite fide the property which Theophon left his daughter by adoption, and which may fairly be valued at two talents and a half; with that addition, which however I have not made, their estate will amount to eight talents. Moreover, the inheritance of Hagnias is not yet well fecured to me, fince fome actions brought against the witneffes for perjury will make it necessary for me to obtain a second adjudication; but Stratocles left his poffeffions to his fon uncontroverted and incontrovertible. Now let these depofitions be read, to prove that my effects, together with those of my fon, amount to no more than what I have mentioned, and that actions are depending against some witneffes in the cause concerning the estate of Hagnias.

DEPOSITIONS.

Is the difference then trifling between our respective fortunes? Or rather, is it not fo

great,

that mine appears almost as nothing in comparison of that which was left to the children. of Stratocles? You cannot therefore give credit to the affertions of this man, who, although the boy has a flourishing estate of his own, has ventured to prefer fo violent and fo groundless a charge against me, and infifts on three eftates, which he supposes me to have inherited, together with the vast wealth which I have amaffed; all which, he says, I have fecreted, that the publick may reap no advantage from my opulence. Such are the calumnies, which men, who have nothing equitable to alledge, are forced to invent, that they may confound the innocent with the boldness of their accufations! You will all, however, teftify for me, that my wife's two brothers, Chæreleos and Macartatus, were not in the rank of those who bear expenfive offices, but were in circumstances extremely contracted; you know, that Macartatus, having fold his farm, bought a galley, which he armed, and failed in it to Crete; nor was this a private act, but of fuch notoriety, that it was mentioned in the affembly of the people, where some were apprehensive that the Lacedæmonias would confider fuch an expedition as a breach of the peace, and would confequently renew hoftilities. Chæreleos, indeed, left an eftate in Profpalta, not worth more than half a talent, and died be

of

fore Macartatus, who foon afterwards perished in battle, where the veffel and all the goods, with which he had embarked, were taken. When the Profpaltian farm became the property of my wife, the perfuaded me to emancipate one my fons, that he might continue the name and preserve the family of her deceased brother Macartatus; not that my parting with that estate might exempt me from serving publick offices, for that made no difference, as I had ferved before it came to me, and was among the readieft to join in contributions, and to perform all the duties which you required of me; fo that this informer most falfely charges me with being an useless, yet an opulent, citizen.

To conclude: I will fum up the whole cause in one word by a proposal, which you will allow, I am perfuaded, to be juft: I offer to bring my whole eftate, large or small, into hotchpot with that of my ward, and when they are mixed together, let each of us fairly take a moiety of the aggregate value, so that neither of us may poffefs more than the other; but to this, I know, my adversary will never confent.

FRAGMENTS OF ISÆUS.

I.

From a Speech for Euphiletus against the Burgesses of Erchia.

THE ARGUMENT.

THE law, by which every borough in Attica was commanded to make a review of its members, and to reject all such as were not genuine citizens, gave the rejected a power of appealing to the courts of justice at Athens; but ordained, that, if the appellants failed in proving their right, they should be sold for slaves, and their property confiscated.

EUPHILETUS, the son of Hegesippus, had been disfranchised by the Erchians, in consequence of some private quarrel; and the dispute was at first referred to two arbitrators, who made an award in his favour; but, as the burgesses persisted in their refusal to admit him, he was not deterred by the rigour of the law from bringing his appeal. Isæus, who composed the speech for one of the appellant's brothers, began with an exact narrative of the whole transaction, and, having called witnesses in confirmation of it, supported their credibility with the following judicious observations.

FRAGMENTS.

*

THAT Euphiletus, judges, is really our brother by the fame father, you have heard proved by the teftimony not of us only, but of all our kinfmen. Now confider firft what could have induced our father to invent a falfity, and to take by adoption a fon, whom he had not by nature; for you will find, that all adoptions are made by men, who either have no children lawfully born, or are compelled by their poverty to adopt fome wealthy foreigners, from whom they expect a pecuniary acknowledgment for the benefit conferred on them by making them citizens of Athens: but our father had neither of these motives; for we two are his legitimate fons, so that he could not have been in want of an heir; nor had he any need of support from this adopted fon, fince he poffeffed a handsome competence of his own; and it has, moreover, been proved to you, that he maintained Euphiletus from his infancy, conducted his education, and introduced him to the members of his ward, of all which the expenses are by no means in