On The Estate of Aristarchus (3-4)

This, then, is the first point which I shall try to make clear to you, if you will give me your kind attention; for you will recognize that this estate belonged from the first, not to my opponents but to my mother, who inherited it from her father, and, secondly, that Aristarchus (II.) seized it without the sanction of any law, and that he and the members of his family are wronging my mother in violation of every law. I will try to put the matter before you, going back to a point which will enable you to form the clearest conception of the facts.

Aristarchus (I.), gentlemen, belonged to the deme of Sypalettus. He married the daughter of Xenaenetus (I.) of Acharnae, by whom he had two sons, Cyronides and Demochares, and two daughters, one of whom was my mother. Cyronides, the father of my opponent and of the other party[*] who illegally kept possession of this estate, was adopted into another family, so that he had no further claim to the property. On the death of Aristarchus (I.), the father of these two sons, Demochares his son became his heir; but, when he died in his minority and the other sister also died, my mother became heiress to the whole of the family estate.