What if the name be involved in the filing of any other suit, or, in general, in any unpleasant scandal? Who, among people at large, will know which of the two it is, when there are two Mantitheuses having the same father? Suppose, again, that he should be prosecuted for evasion of military service, and should be serving as chorister when he ought to be abroad with the army—as, a while ago, when the rest went over to Tamynae,A town in Euboea. he was left behind here keeping the feast of Pitchers,This name was given to the second day of the festival Anthesteria, held in February-March. and remained here and served in the chorus at the Dionysia,Service in the chorus at the Dionysiac festival would entitle the individual to exemption from the military for the time being—an easy way out for the slacker. as all of you who were at home saw;

then, after the soldiers had come back from Euboea, he was summoned on a charge of desertion, and I, as taxiarch of our tribe,The taxiarchs were military officers, each in command of his tribe’s contingent of hoplites. was compelled to receive the summons, since it was against my name, that of my father being added; and if pay had been available for the juries,Evidently shortage of funds might prevent the courts from sitting; and the Euboean campaign had depleted the treasury. I should certainly have had to bring the case into court. If this had not occurred after the boxesThe ἐχῖνοι were receptacles in which the documents, etc., pertaining to the case were put under seal, to be opened only when the case was called. See note on Dem. 34.46 had already been sealed, I should have brought you witnesses to prove it.

Well then; suppose he were summoned on the charge of being an alien. And he does make himself obnoxious to many, and the way in which my father was compelled to adopt him is no secret. You, on your part, while my father was refusing to acknowledge him, believed that his mother was telling the truth; but when, with his parentage thus established, he makes himself odious, you will some day on the contrary conclude that my father’s story was true. Again, what if my opponent, in the expectation of being convicted of perjury for the servicesThe service at which the speaker hints is presumably the bearing of false testimony. which he freely grants his associates, should allow the suit to go by default? Do you think it would be a slight injury that I should be my whole life long a sharer of his reputation and his doings?

Pray observe that my fear regarding the things I have set forth to you is not a vain one. He has already, men of Athens, been defendant in certain suits, in which, although I have been wholly innocent, odium has attached to my name as well as his; and he has laid claim to the office to which you had elected me; and many unpleasant things have happened to me because of the name; regarding each one of which I will produce witnesses to inform you fully.

You see, men of Athens, what keeps happening and the annoyance resulting from the matter. But even if there were no annoying results, and if it were not absolutely impossible for us both to have the same name, it surely is not fair for him to have his share of my property by virtue of the adoption which my father made under compulsion, and for me to be robbed of the name which that father gave me of his own free will and under constraint from no one. I, certainly, think it is not.

Now, to show you that my father not only made the entry in the list of the clansmen in the manner which has been testified to you, but that he gave me this name when he kept the tenth day after my birth,The child was formally named at a ceremony held on the tenth day after birth, and attended by members of the family and close friends. please take this deposition.