Sositheus Against Macartatus in Regard to the Estate of Hagnias (65-68)

It is surely a most outrageous result that these men are scheming to bring about, that forsooth we and the women of our family should inherit the body of Hagnias, when he was dead, and should perform all the proper rites, as being relatives and nearest of kin, but that Macartatus should claim the right to possess the estate of the dead Hagnias, though he belongs to the house of Stratius and is descended from Apolexis, daughter of the Prospaltian and sister of Macartatus. But this is neither just nor righteous, men of the jury.

(To the clerk.) Now please read the words of the oracle brought from Delphi, from the shrine of the god, that you may see that it speaks in the same terms concerning relatives as do the laws of Solon.

Oracle

May good fortune attend you. The people of the Athenians make inquiry about the sign which has appeared in the heavens, asking what the Athenians should do, or to what god they should offer sacrifice or make prayer, in order that the issue of the sign may be for their advantage. It will be well for the Athenians with reference to the sign which has appeared in the heavens that they sacrifice with happy auspices to Zeus most high, to Athena most high, to Heracles, to Apollo the deliverer, and that they send due offerings to the Amphiones;[*] that they sacrifice for good fortune to Apollo, god of the ways, to Leto and to Artemis, and that they make the streets steam with the savour of sacrifice; that they set forth bowls of wine and institute choruses and wreathe themselves with garlands after the custom of their fathers, in honor of all the Olympian gods and goddesses, lifting up the right hand and the left, and that they be mindful to bring gifts of thanksgiving after the custom of their fathers. And ye shall offer sacrificial gifts after the custom of your fathers to the hero-founder after whom ye are named; and for the dead their relatives shall make offerings on the appointed day according to established custom.

You hear, men of the jury, that Solon in the laws and the god in the oracle use the same language, bidding the relatives to perform rites for the departed on the proper days. But neither Theopompus nor the defendant Macartatus cared at all for these things; they cared only for this, that they might retain possession of what does not belong to them, and to complain that after having had the estate for so long, they must now defend their title to it. I should have thought, men of the jury, that one who unjustly keeps in his possession the property of another, should not make complaints if he has kept it in his possession longer than is right, but should be grateful, not to us, but to fortune, that so many unavoidable delays have occurred in the interim, so that he is not brought to trial until now.

Our opponents, then, men of the jury, are men of this stamp; they care nothing either for the extinction of the house of Hagnias, or for all the rest of their lawless deeds; men, who, O Zeus and the gods—but why should one mention the other things relative to them? There would be much indeed to tell of. But one thing which they have brought to pass is the most lawless and the most abominable, and most clearly proves that they care for nothing except their profit.