Sositheus Against Macartatus in Regard to the Estate of Hagnias (9-12)

so that I, who acted as pleader for the lady, was not only unable to explain to the jurymen the relationship and other matters as clearly as I could have wished, but could not even defend myself against the smallest fraction of the lies which they told about us; for I had but a fifth part of the water. Their scheme was this: to tell a wholly false story about us, but to back one another up and agree in everything.

So, since they had formed their plot in this way, and each backed up the other’s charges against us, when the four ballot-boxes[*] were set out according to law, the jurymen, naturally enough, as I think, were deceived and could not agree with one another, and being led astray by this trick, they voted each as chance determined. And there were a very few more votes—some three or four—in the box of Theopompus than in that of the lady.

This, then, was what took place at that time. But when this boy was born, and it seemed a fitting time, I, being in no way incensed at what had happened, but considering that the former jurymen had met with a very natural experience, introduced this boy here to the clansmen of Hagnias in the interest of Eubulides, seeing that the boy was the son of his daughter, in order that the family might not become extinct.

For the elder Eubulides, men of the jury, who was next of kin to Hagnias, prayed to the gods above all else that a son might be born to him as a daughter had been, the mother of this boy; but since he failed of this hope and not a single male child was born to him, his next dearest wish was that a son of his daughter should be adopted into his own family and that of Hagnias and should be introduced to the members of his clan; for he thought, men of the jury, that of his surviving relatives this boy was nearest to him, and that in this way their house would best be preserved and kept from extinction.