I was of opinion, citizens of Aegina, that Thrasylochus had arranged his affairs so
 prudently that no one should ever come before a court to bring a suit in opposition to the
 will which he left. But since my adversaries have determined to contest a testament so
 purposefully drawn, I am compelled to try to obtain my rights from you.

My feeling is unlike that of most men. For I see that others are indignant when they are
 unjustly involved in a law-suit, whereas I am almost grateful to my opponents for bringing
 me into this trial. For if the matter
 had not been brought before a tribunal you would not have known of my devotion to the
 deceased, which led to my being made his heir; but when you learn the facts you will all
 perceive that I might justly have been thought worthy of even a greater reward.

The proper course, however, for the woman who is laying claim to the property would have
 been, not to try to obtain from you the estate left by Thrasylochus, but to show that she
 also was devoted to him and on that ground thought fit to bring suit for it. But the truth
 is, she is so far from repenting of her misconduct towards Thrasylochus in his life-time,
 that now too that he is dead she is trying to annul his will and to leave the home without
 heirs.

And I am astonished that those who are acting in her behalf think this action is
 reputable, just because, if they fail to win, they will need to pay no penalty. For my
 part, I think that it will be a severe penalty, if, having been convicted of making a
 wrongful claim, they shall thereafter suffer in your esteem. However, you will know the
 baseness of these men from their very acts when you have heard to the end what they have
 done; and I shall begin the recital of them at the point from which, in my opinion, you
 will be able to learn most quickly the matters at issue.

Thrasyllus, the father of the testator, had inherited nothing from his parents; but
 having become the guest-friend of Polemaenetus, the soothsayer, he became so intimate with
 him that Polemaenetus at his death left to him his books on divination and gave him a
 portion of the property which is now in question.

Thrasyllus, with these books as his capital, practised the art of divination. He became
 an itinerant soothsayer, lived in many cities, and was intimate with several women, some
 of whom had children whom he never even recognized as legitimate, and, in particular,
 during this period he lived with the mother of the complainant.

When he had acquired a large fortune and yearned for his fatherland, he left this woman
 and the others as well, and debarking at Siphnos married a sister of my father. Thrasyllus
 himself was indeed the leading citizen in wealth, but he knew that our family was likewise
 pre-eminent in lineage and in general standing;

and he cherished so warmly my father's affection for him that at the death of his wife,
 who was without children, he remarried, taking as wife my father's cousin, as he did not
 wish to dissolve the affinity with us. But after he had lived with her for only a short
 time, he suffered the same bereavement as his former wife.

After this he married a woman of Seriphos, belonging to a family of greater consequence
 than might be expected of a native of their island. Of this marriage were born Sopolis, Thrasylochus, and a daughter,
 who is my wife. These were the only legitimate children left by Thrasyllus and he made
 these his heirs when he died.

Thrasylochus and I, having inherited from our fathers a friendship the intimacy of which
 I have recently mentioned, made the bond still closer. For during our childhood we were
 fonder of each other than of our brothers, and we would perform no sacrifice, make no
 pilgrimage, and celebrate no festival except in one another's company; and when we reached
 manhood we never opposed one another in any action undertaken, for we not only shared our
 private concerns but also held similar sentiments regarding public affairs, and we had the
 same intimates and guest-friends.

And why need I speak further of our intimacy at home? In truth, not even in exile did we care to be apart. Finally,
 when Thrasylochus was striken with the wasting disease and suffered a long illness—his
 brother Sopolis had previously died and his mother and sister had not
 arrived —seeing him so completely
 destitute of companionship I nursed him with such unremitting care and devotion that he
 thought he could never repay me with a gratitude adequate to my services;

Nevertheless he left nothing undone to reward me, and when he was in a grievous condition
 and had given up all hope of life, he summoned witnesses, made me his adoptive son, and
 gave me his sister and his fortune. Please take the will. Read to
 me also the law of Aegina; for it was necessary that the will be drawn in accordance with
 this law, since we were alien residents of this island.

It was in accordance with this law, citizens of Aegina, that Thrasylochus adopted me as
 his son, for I was his fellow-citizen and friend, in birth inferior to no one of the
 Siphnians, and had been reared and educated very much as he himself had been. I therefore
 do not see how he could have acted more consistently with the law, since the law insists
 that persons of the same status may be adopted. Please take also the law of Ceos, under which
 we were living.

If ,therefore, citizens of Aegina, my opponents were refusing to recognize the validity
 of these laws, but were able to produce in support of their case the law of their own
 country, their conduct would have been less astonishing. But the truth is that their own
 law is in agreement with those already read. Please take this document.

What argument is left to them, therefore, since they themselves admit that Thrasylochus
 left the will and that they can cite no law in their favor, whereas all support my
 case—first, the law which is valid among you who are to adjudge the case, next, the law of
 Siphnos, the fatherland of the testator, and finally the law of the country of my
 opponents? And yet from what illegal act do you think these persons would abstain,
 inasmuch as they seek to persuade you that you should declare this will valid, although
 the laws read as you have heard and you have taken oath to cast your votes in conformity
 with them?

On the issue itself I consider that I have adduced sufficient proof; but that no one may
 think that my possession of the inheritance rests upon feeble grounds, or that this woman
 had been kindly in her behavior toward Thrasylochus and is being defrauded of his fortune,
 I wish also to discuss these matters. For I should be ashamed in behalf of the deceased
 unless you were all convinced that his actions were strictly in accordance, not only with
 the law, but also with justice.

And I believe that proof of this is easy. There was, in truth, this great difference
 between us—that this woman, who bases her contention on the ground of relationship, never
 ceased to be at variance with the testator and evilly-disposed toward him and toward
 Sopolis and their mother, whereas I shall be shown to have been the most deserving of all
 his friends, not only in my relations with Thrasylochus and his brother, but also with
 regard to the estate in controversy.

It would be a long story to tell of the events of long ago; but when Pasinus took Paros, it chanced that my
 friends had the greatest part of their fortune deposited as a pledge with my guest-friends
 there; for we thought that this island was by far the safest. When they were at their
 wits' end and believed that their property was lost, I sailed thither by night and got
 their money out at risk of my life;

for the country was occupied by a garrison, and some of the exiles from our island
 participated in the seizure of the city, and these, in one day and with their own hands,
 had slain my father, my uncle, my brother-in-law and, in addition, three cousins. However,
 I was deterred by none of these risks, but I took ship, thinking I ought to run the risk
 as much for my friends' sake as for my own.

Afterwards when a general flight from the city ensued, accompanied by such confusion and fear that some persons were
 indifferent even to the fate of their own relations, I was not content, even in these
 misfortunes, merely to be able to save the members of my own household, but knowing that
 Sopolis was absent and Thrasylochus was in feeble health, I helped him to convey from the
 country his mother, his sister, and all his fortune. And yet who with greater justice
 should possess this fortune than the person who then helped to save it and now has
 received it from its legitimate owners?

I have related the adventures in which I incurred danger indeed, yet suffered no harm;
 but I have also to speak of friendly services I rendered him which involved me in the
 greatest misfortunes. For when we had arrived at Melos, and Thrasylochus perceived that we
 were likely to remain there, he begged me to sail with him to Troezen and by all means not to abandon him, mentioning his
 bodily infirmity and the multitude of his enemies, saying that without me he would not
 know how to manage his own affairs.

And although my mother was afraid because she had heard that Troezen was unhealthy and
 our guest-friends advised us to remain where we were, nevertheless we decided that we
 ought to satisfy his wish. No sooner had we arrived at Troezen than we were attacked by
 illnesses of such severity that I barely escaped with my own life, and within thirty days
 I buried my young sister fourteen years of age, and my mother not five days therereafter.
 In what state of mind do you think I was after such a change in my life?

I had previously been inexperienced in misfortune and I had only recently suffered exile
 and living an alien among foreigners, and had lost my fortune; in addition, I saw my
 mother and my sister driven from their native land and ending their lives in a foreign
 land among strangers. No one could justly begrudge it me, therefore, if I have received
 some benefit from the troublesome affairs of Thrasylochus; for it was to gratify him that
 I went to live in Troezen, where I experienced misfortunes so dire that I shall never be
 able to forget them.

Furthermore, there is one thing my opponents cannot say of me—that when Thrasylochus was
 prosperous I suffered all these woes, but that I abandoned him in his adversity. For it
 was precisely then that I gave clearer and stronger proof of my devotion to him. When, for
 instance, he settled in Aegina and fell ill of the malady which resulted in his death, I
 nursed him with a care such as no one else I know of has ever bestowed upon another. Most
 of the time he was very ill, yet still able to go about; finally he lay for six months
 bedridden.

And no one of his relations saw fit to share with me the drudgery of caring for him; no
 one even came to see him with the exception of his mother and sister; and they made the
 task more difficult; for they were ill when they came from Troezen, so that they
 themselves were in need of care. But although the others were thus indifferent, I did not
 grow weary nor did I leave the scene, but I nursed him with the help of one slave boy;

for no one of the domestics could stand it. For being by nature irascible, he became,
 because of his malady, still more difficult to handle. It should not occasion surprise,
 therefore, that these persons would not remain with him, but it is much more a cause for
 wonder that I was able to hold out in caring for a man sick of such a malady; for he was
 filled with pus for a long time, and was unable to leave his bed;

and his suffering was so great that we did not pass a single day without tears, but kept up our lamentations both for the hardships we both had to
 endure, and for our exile and our isolation. And there was no intermission at any time;
 for it was impossible to leave him or to seem to neglect him—to me this would have seemed
 more dreadful than the woes which afflicted us.

I wish I could make clearly apparent to you my conduct with respect to him; for in that
 case I think that you would not endure even a word from my opponents. The truth is, it is
 not easy to describe the duties involved in my care of the invalid, duties that were very
 hard, very difficult to endure, most disagreeably toilsome, and exacting an unremitting
 care. But do you yourselves consider what loss of sleep, what miseries are the inevitable
 accompaniment of a prolonged nursing of a malady like his.

In truth, in my own case, I was reduced to such a condition that all my friends who
 visited me expressed fear that I too would perish with the dying man and they advised me
 to take care, saying that the majority of those who had nursed this disease themselves
 fell victims to it also. My reply to them was this—that I would much prefer to die than to
 see him perish before his fated day for lack of a friend to nurse him.

And although my behavior was as I have described, this woman has had the hardihood to
 contest with me his fortune, she who never even saw fit to visit him during his long
 illness, though she had daily information about his condition, and though the journey was
 easy for her. To think that they will now attempt to “brother” him, as if the effect of calling the dead man by a mane of closer kinship
 would not be to make her shortcomings seem worse and more shocking!

Why, when he was at the point of death, and when she saw all our fellow-citizens who were
 in Troezen sailing to Aegina to take part in his funeral, she did not even at that moment
 come, but was so cruel and heartless in conduct that while she did not see fit to come to
 his funeral, yet, less than ten days thereafter she arrived to claim the property he had
 left, as if she were related to his money and not to him!

And if she will admit that her hatred for him was so bitter that this conduct was
 reasonable, then Thrasylochus would be considered not to have been ill-advised in
 preferring to leave his property to his friends rather than to this woman; but if there
 existed no variance between them and yet she was so neglectful of him and so unkind toward
 him, surely with greater justice would she be deprived of her own possessions than become
 heir to his.

Bear in mind that, so far as she was concerned, he had no care during his illness, nor
 when he died was he thought worthy of the customary funeral rites, whereas it was through
 me that he obtained both. Surely you will justly cast your votes in favor, not of those
 who claim blood-relationship yet in their conduct have acted like enemies, but with much
 greater propriety you will side with those who, though having no title of relationship,
 yet showed themselves, when the deceased was in misfortune, more nearly akin than the
 nearest relatives.

My opponents say that they do not doubt that Thrasylochus left the will, but they assert
 that it is not honorable and proper. And yet, citizens of Aegina, how could anyone have
 given better or greater evidence of interest in the disposal of his own property? He did
 not leave his home without heirs and he has shown due gratitude to his friends and,
 further, he made his mother and his sister possessors, not only of their own property, but
 of mine also by giving the latter to me as wife and by making me, by adoption, the son of
 the former.

Would he have acted more wisely if he had taken the alternative course—if he had failed
 to appoint a protector for his mother, and if he had made no mention of me, but had
 abandoned his sister to chance and permitted the name of his family to perish?

But perhaps I was unworthy of being adopted as a son by Thrasylochus and of receiving
 his sister in marriage. All the Siphnians would bear witness, however, that my ancestors
 were foremost of the citizens there in birth, in wealth, in reputation, and in general
 standing. For who were thought worthy of higher offices, or made greater contributions, or
 served as choregi more
 handsomely, or discharged other special public services with greater magnificence? What
 family in Siphnos has furnished more kings?

Thrasylochus, therefore, even if I had never spoken to him, would reasonably have wished
 to give his sister to me just for these reasons; and I, even if I had not possessed any of
 these advantages, but had been the lowest of the citizens, would justly have been esteemed
 by him as deserving of the greatest recompenses by reason of the services I had rendered
 him.

I believe, moreover, that in making this disposition of his estate he did what was most
 pleasing to his brother Sopolis also. For Sopolis also hated this woman and regarded her
 as ill-disposed toward his interests, whereas he valued me above all his friends. He
 showed this feeling for me in many ways and in particular when our companions in exile
 determined, with the help of their auxiliary troops, to capture the city. For when he was
 designated leader with full powers he both chose me as secretary and appointed me
 treasurer of all funds, and when we were about to engage in battle, he placed me next to
 himself.

And consider how greatly he profited thereby; for when our attack on the city met with
 ill success, and the retreat did not succeed as we desired, and when he was wounded,
 unable to walk and in a faint condition, I and my servant carried him off on our shoulders
 to the ship. Consequently he often said to many persons that I was solely responsible for
 his coming through alive.

Yet what greater benefaction than this could a man receive? Moreover, when he had sailed
 to Lycia and died there, this woman, a few days after the news of his death, was
 sacrificing and holding festival, and had no shame before his surviving brother, so little
 regard did she have for the dead man, but I instituted mourning for him in the custom
 prescribed for relatives.

And it was my character and my affection for the two brothers that moved me to do all
 this and not any expectation of this trial; for I did not think that both would come to
 such an unhappy end that by dying without children they were going to oblige us to prove
 how each one of us had felt and acted toward them.

How this woman and myself conducted ourselves toward Thrasylochus and Sopolis you have,
 in the main heard; but perhaps they will have recourse to the one argument which remains
 to them—that Thrasyllus, the father of this woman, will feel that he is being dishonored
 (if the dead have any perception of happenings in this world) when he sees his
 daughter being deprived of her fortune and me becoming the heir of what he had
 acquired.

But I am of opinion that it is proper for us to speak here, not concerning those who died
 long ago, but of those who recently left their heritage. As to Thrasyllus, he left as
 possessors of his estate the persons of his choice; and it is only just, then, that to
 Thrasylochus also the same privilege should be granted by you, and that not this woman,
 but those whom he designated in his will, should become the successors to the inheritance.
 However, I do not believe that I need evade the judgement of Thrasyllus.

He would be, I think, the most harsh judge of all for her, if he knows how she has
 treated his children. If you should vote in accordance with the laws, he would be far from
 taking offense, but he would be far more incensed if he should see the testaments of his
 children annulled. If, for instance, Thrasylochus had given property to my family, they
 would have had reason to lay that up against him; as it is, he adopted into his own
 family, so that the plaintiffs have not received less than they gave.

Apart from this, it is reasonable to suppose that Thrasyllus, more than anyone else, was
 friendly toward those whose claims are based upon a testamentary gift. For he himself
 learned his art from Polemaenetus the soothsayer, and received his fortune, not through
 family relationship but through merit; surely, therefore, he would not complain if a man
 who had acted honorably toward his children should be regarded as deserving of the same
 reward as himself.

You should call to mind also what I said in the beginning. For I pointed out to you that
 he esteemed relationship with our family so highly that he married the sister and then the
 cousin of my father. And yet to whom would he more willingly have given his own daughter
 in marriage than to that family from which he himself chose his wife? And from what family
 would he have more gladly seen a son adopted according to law than that from which he
 sought to beget children of his own body?

If therefore, you award the inheritance to me, you will stand well with Thrasyllus and
 with all others who have any proper interest in this matter; but if you permit yourselves
 to be deceived by the persuasion of this woman, not only will you do injury to me, but
 also to Thrasylochus, the testator, and to Sopolis, and to their sister, who is now my
 wife, and their mother, who would be the unhappiest of women if it should not be enough
 for her to have lost her children, but also must see this additional sorrow that their
 wishes are nullified, her family without an heir, and this woman,

as she exults over her misfortunes, making good at law her claim to the property, while I
 am unable to obtain my just rights, although my treatment of her sons has been such that,
 if anyone should compare me—I will not say with this woman, but with any who have ever
 entered their claim to an inheritance on the strength of testamentary gift—I should be
 found to have been inferior to none in my conduct toward my friends. And yet men of my
 kind ought to be honored and esteemed rather than be robbed of the gifts which others have
 bestowed upon them.

It is expedient, to, that you should uphold the law which permits us to adopt children
 and to dispose wisely of our property, reflecting that for men who are childless this law
 takes the place of children; for it is owing this law that both kinsmen and those who are
 not related take greater care of each other.

But that I may conclude and occupy no more time in speaking, pray consider how strong
 and how just are the claims with which I have come before you; there is, first, my
 friendship with those who have left the inheritance, a friendship of ancient origin,
 handed down from our fathers, and in all that time never broken; second, my many great
 acts of kindness done for them in their adversity; third, there is a will which my
 opponents themselves acknowledge; and lastly, the law, which supports the will, a law that
 in the opinion of all Greeks is regarded as wisely made.

Of my statement the best proof is this—although the Greek states differ in opinion about
 many other enactments, they are of one accord concerning this one. I beg you, therefore,
 bearing in mind both these considerations and the others I have mentioned, to give a just
 verdict, and prove yourselves to be for me such judges as you would want to have for
 yourselves.