speaker's mother

on the other, those of my mother, to whom you set up both an image and a shrine, 4.

For my grandfather, together with my mother, obtained from the emperor of that time, who was his friend, at one and the same time the Roman citizenship and yours;

Demosthenes, my father, men of the jury, left at his death an estate of nearly fourteen talents, a son, myself, aged seven, and my sister, aged five, and his widow, our mother, who had brought him a fortune of fifty minae.

and Aphobus, when he had heard him, neither denied that he had the money nor waxed indignant as one who had received nothing, but admitted the fact, and said that he was having a little dispute with my mother about her jewels, and that, when he had settled this matter, he would act regarding the maintenance and all else in such a way that I should have no ground for complaint.

To Demophon he gave my sister with a dowry of two talents, to be paid at once, and to the defendant himself he gave our mother with a dowry of eighty minae, and the right to use my house and furniture.

Bathyllus (for Periander was still a boy) then gave her again in marriage with the talent for her dowry, and she dwelt with my father as his wife.

That my mother, therefore, men of the jury, bringing a talent as her dowry, and given in marriage by her brothers, as the laws command, lived with my father as his wife;

nay, render me the help that is my due, remembering in the light of all that I have urged that it is far more just that you should by your verdict give my mother’s portion to my daughter for her dowry, than that Plangon and these men, in addition to all the rest that they have done, should, in utter defiance of justice, rob me also of my house, which was set apart to secure the payment of the marriage-portion.

and furthermore that I tendered an oath to their mother, and challenged them to have my mother swear in the same terms, (to the clerk) take, please, the depositions and the challenge

She averred that she saw, and heard from their mother, that some of the barley got wet (she saw them drying it), but not so much as three medimni, and about half a medimnus of wheat flour;

Before they undertook this malicious action against me, my mother and theirs were intimate friends and used to visit one another, as was natural, since both lived in the country and were neighbors, and since, furthermore, their husbands had been friends while they lived.

For why is it that I, Phaenippus, while my mother—who brought with her a marriage portion—is living and dwelling in my house, do not declare the marriage portion as a debt due to her, and thus try to lead the jurymen astray, but permit her to share in all that I have, alike whether it shall prove to be the estate of Phaenippus or my own?

But for himself he has not scrupled to marry his mistress, and he dwells as husband with her who scattered the sweatmeats over him when he was bought as a slave, nor to write a clause giving himself a marriage portion of five talents in addition to the large sums of which he became master, inasmuch as they were in the custody of my mother—for why do you suppose he wrote in the will the clause and …

I consider Pasicles to be my brother on my mother’s side, but whether on my father’s side also, I do not know;

For they are their uncles, since the man married my mother;

For if the present defendant had not been recognized as having given false evidence, the other witness would have been acquitted in the suit about the protestation, and the woman whom the protestation affirmed to be my uncle's legitimate daughter would have been established as his heiress instead of our mother.

When our mother, the sister of Pyrrhus, claimed the estate, the legal representative of the woman who was suing for the estate had the audacity to put in a protestation that the estate was not adjudicable to our mother, because Pyrrhus, to whom it originally belonged, had a legitimate daughter.