On the Estate of Astyphilus (10-14)

Witnesses

Cleon will perhaps contend that you ought not to draw any conclusions from the evidence of these witnesses, because they merely depose that they have no knowledge of the making of this will by Astyphilus. But in my opinion, since the controversy is about a will and about the adoption of a son by Astyphilus, more weight should be attached by you to the evidence of the intimate friends of the deceased, when they declare that they were not present on so important an occasion, than to the evidence of those who have no connection with him, to the effect that they were present.

Moreover, Cleon himself, being apparently no fool, when Astyphilus was adopting his son and making the will, ought to have summoned any relatives whom he knew to be in the city and practically any other person with whom he knew Astyphilus to be intimate. For no one could have prevented Astyphilus from devising his property to whomsoever he wished; but the fact that the will was not made in secret, would have been strong evidence in Cleon's favor.

Furthermore, gentlemen, if Astyphilus wished that no one should know that he was adopting Cleon's son or that he had left a will, no one else's name ought to have been inscribed in the document as witness; but if it appears that he made a will in the presence of witnesses, and those witnesses were not taken from among those who were most intimate with him but were chance persons, is there any probability that the will is genuine?

For my part I cannot believe that anyone, when he was adopting a son, would have ventured to summon as witnesses any other persons except those with whom he was about to leave that son, to take his own place as an associate for the future in their religious and civic acts. Moreover, no one ought to be ashamed of summoning the largest possible number of witnesses to the execution of such a will, when there is a law which permits a man to bequeath his property to whomsoever he wishes.

Now consider the matter, gentlemen, from the point of view of the date which my opponents assign to the will. They say that he made these dispositions when he was sailing for Mytilene on military service; it is clear then from their account that he knew beforehand all that fate had in store for him! For he served first at Corinth, then in Thessaly and again throughout the Theban war,[*] and wherever else he heard of an army being collected, he went abroad holding a command; yet never on his departure for any one of these campaigns did he leave a will behind him. The expedition to Mytilene was his last, for in it he perished.