Aegineticus (11-15)

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.

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?