Aristodemus Against Leochares Regarding the Estate of Archiades (12-14)

Now, with regard to this adoption, we will show you plainly later on what its character was; but with reference to blood relationship, I must prove to you that they are not nearer of kin than we. One thing is admitted, that in the matter of inheritance males and those descended from males have the precedence, for the law explicitly gives the inheritance as their due to the nearest of kin in the male line, when there are no children. Well, it is we who answer this description; for Archiades is admitted to have died without issue, and we are the nearest of kin to him in the male line.

And furthermore, we are also his nearest of kin in the female line; for Meidylides was the brother of Archiades, and the daughter of Meidylides was the mother of my father, so that Archiades, for whose inheritance we are now prosecuting our claim, is uncle (their fathers having been brothers) to the mother of my father, having this relationship in the male line, not in the female line. But Leostratus here is in kinship further removed, and is related to Archiades on the female side; for the mother of Leocrates, the father of the defendant, was niece to the Archiades in question and to Meidylides, as descendants of whom we claim the right to win the inheritance.

First, men of the jury, to prove that our pedigree is as I have stated, the clerk shall read you the depositions, and thereafter the law itself which awards inheritances to the families and to those nearest of kin in the male line. For, I take it, these are the essential points in the case and the matters upon which you cast your vote under oath.

(To the clerk.) Call the witnesses up here, please, and read the law.

The Witnesses. The Law