Sositheus Against Macartatus in Regard to the Estate of Hagnias (37-40)

The deponent testifies that Archimachus was his grandfather and adopted him as his son, and that he was a relative of Polemon, the father of Hagnias, and that he heard from Archimachus and his other relatives that Polemon, the father of Hagnias, never had any brother, but had a sister, born of the same father and the same mother, namely Phylomachê, the mother of Eubulides, the father of Phylomachê, wife of Sositheus.

Another

The deponent testifies that his wife’s father Callistratus was first cousin to Polemon, the father of Hagnias, and to Charidemus, the father of Theopompus, their fathers having been brothers, and that his mother was daughter of a first cousin to Polemon, and that their mother often said to them that Phylomachê, the mother of Eubulides, was sister of Polemon, the father of Hagnias, born of the same father and the same mother, and that Polemon, the father of Hagnias, never had any brother.

In the former trial, men of the jury, when these men formed their conspiracy with one another and acted in concert, the whole group of them, in their contest against the lady, we, on our part, men of the jury, neither prepared depositions regarding facts that were admitted, nor summoned witnesses, but thought that in these matters at least we were perfectly safe; whereas our opponents had equipped themselves with all manner of shameless artifices for the trial, and had their minds set upon this thing alone—to deceive the jurymen for the moment.

They had the audacity to assert that Polemon, the father of Hagnias, had no sister at all born of the same father and the same mother; so abominably impudent were they, seeking to mislead the jurymen in a matter of such importance and so well-known, and they spent all their efforts and strove beyond all else to establish this. We have, however, on this present occasion produced this host of witnesses regarding the sister of Polemon and aunt of Hagnias.

On the defendant’s side let whoever will give evidence either that Polemon and Phylomachê were not brother and sister, born of the same father and the same mother, or that Polemon was not the son, and Phylomachê not the daughter, of Hagnias, the son of Buselus; or that Polemon was not the father of Hagnias, whose estate is in question, and Phylomachê, the sister of Polemon, not his aunt;