Pray, men of Athens , do not scorn the needy (their poverty is misfortune enough), and scorn still less those who choose to engage in trade and get their living by honest means. No; listen to my words, and if I prove to you that my mother’s relatives are such as free-born people ought to be; that they deny upon oath the calumnious charges which this man makes regarding her, and testify that they know her to be of civic birth—they on their part being witnesses whom you yourselves will acknowledge to be worthy of credence—, then, as you are bound to do, cast your votes in my favor. My grandfather, men of Athens , the father of my mother, was Damostratus of Melitê. Melitê, a deme of the tribe Cecropis. To him were born four children; by his first wife a daughter and a son Amytheon, and by his second wife Chaerestratê my mother and Timocrates. These also had children. Amytheon had a son Damostratus, who bore the same name as his grandfather, and two others, Callistratus and Dexitheus. Amytheon, my mother’s brother, was one of those who served in the campaign in Sicily The disastrous expedition to Sicily was sent out in 415 B.C. and were killed there, and he lies buried in the public tomb. A cenotaph, of course. These facts will be proved to you by testimony. To Amytheon’s sister, who married Diodorus of Halae , For the two demes of this name see note a on p. 336 of vol. ii. was born a son Ctesibius, and he was killed in Abydus A town on Hellespont . The date of this campaign was 388 B.C. while serving in the campaign with Thrasybulus. Of these relatives there is living Damostratus, son of Amytheon and nephew of my mother. The sister of my grandmother Chaerestratê was married to Apollodorus of Plotheia. Plotheia, a deme of the tribe Aegeïs. They had a son Olympichus, and Olympichus a son Apollodorus, who is still living. (To the clerk.) Call these people, please. The Witnesses These witnesses, then, you have heard giving their testimony and taking their oaths. I will call also one who is our kinsman on both sides, and his sons. For Timocrates, who is my mother’s brother, born from the same father and the same mother, had a son Euxitheus, and Euxitheus had three sons. All these persons are still living. (To the clerk.) Call, please, those of them who are in the city. The Witnesses Now take, please, the depositions of the members of the clan belonging to the same gens as my mother, and of the members of the deme, and of those who have the right of burial in the same tombs. The Depositions As to my mother’s lineage, then, I prove to you in this way that she was an Athenian on both the male and the female side. My mother, men of the jury, first married Protomachus, to whom she was given by Timocrates, her brother born of the same father and the same mother In order that a marriage should be legitimate it was necessary that the woman should be given in marriage by a near male relative—generally her father or her brother, or in default of these by someone acting in their stead. ; and she had by him a daughter. Then she married my father and gave birth to me. But how it was that she came to marry my father you must hear; for the charges which my opponent makes regarding Cleinias and my mother’s having served as nurse—all this too I will set forth to you clearly.