Mantitheus Against Boeotus I (31-35)

It is, then, an outrage that whereas thanks to that name you have a share in the right of citizenship and in the estate left by my father, you should see fit to fling it aside and take another name. Come; suppose my father were to rise from the grave and demand of you either to abide by the name under which he adopted you, or to declare yourself the son of some other father, would his demand not be thought a reasonable one? Well then, I make this same demand of you, either to add to your name that of another father, or to keep the name which Mantias gave you.

Ah, you may say, but that name was given you by way of derision or insult. No; very often, during the time when my father refused to acknowledge them, these men used to say that the kinsfolk of the defendant’s mother were quite as good as those of my father. Boeotus is the name of his mother’s brother; and when my father was compelled to bring them into the clan, when I had already been introduced as Mantitheus, he introduced the defendant as Boeotus, and his brother as Pamphilus. For I challenge you to show me any Athenian who ever gave the same name to two of his sons. If you can, I will grant that my father gave you this name by way of insult.

And yet, if your character was such that you could force him to adopt you, but not study how you might please him, you were not what a true son ought to be toward his parents; and, if you were not, you would have deserved, not only to be treated with indignity, but even to be put to death. It would indeed be an outrageous thing, if the laws concerning parents are to be binding upon children whom the father recognizes as his own, but are to be of no effect against those who have forced themselves in[*] and compelled an unwilling adoption.

You unconscionable Boeotus, do, pray, give up your present ways; but, if indeed you are unwilling to, do, in Heaven’s name, accept advice in this at least; cease to make trouble for yourself, and cease bringing malicious and baseless charges against me; and be content that you have gained citizenship, an estate, a father. No one is trying to dispossess you of these things; certainly not I. Nay, if, as you claim to be a brother, you also act as a brother, people will believe that you are of our blood; but if you go on plotting against me, suing me, evincing malice toward me, slandering me, you will be thought to have intruded yourself into what belonged to others, and then to be treating it as though it were not rightly yours.

I certainly am doing you no wrong, even if it were never so true that my father refused to recognize you, though you were really his son. It was not my part to know who were his sons, but it was his to show me whom I must regard as a brother. Therefore, during the time in which he refused to recognize you, I also counted you as no relative; but ever since he, adopted you, I too regard you as a kinsman. What is the proof of this? You possess your portion of my father’s estate after his death; you share in the religious rites, and civic privileges. No one seeks to exclude you from these. What is it that you would have? But if he says that he is being outrageously treated, if he weeps and wails, and makes charges against me, do not believe what he says. It is not right that you should, since our argument is not now about these matters. But take this attitude—that he can just as well get satisfaction under the name of Boeotus.