31
It is, then, an outrage that whereas thanks to that name you have a share in the right of citizenship and in the estate left by my father, you should see fit to fling it aside and take another name. Come; suppose my father were to rise from the grave and demand of you either to abide by the name under which he adopted you, or to declare yourself the son of some other father, would his demand not be thought a reasonable one? Well then, I make this same demand of you, either to add to your name that of another father, or to keep the name which Mantias gave you.
32
Ah, you may say, but that name was given you by way of derision or insult. No; very often, during the time when my father refused to acknowledge them, these men used to say that the kinsfolk of the defendant’s mother were quite as good as those of my father. Boeotus is the name of his mother’s brother; and when my father was compelled to bring them into the clan, when I had already been introduced as Mantitheus, he introduced the defendant as Boeotus, and his brother as Pamphilus. For I challenge you to show me any Athenian who ever gave the same name to two of his sons. If you can, I will grant that my father gave you this name by way of insult.
33
And yet, if your character was such that you could force him to adopt you, but not study how you might please him, you were not what a true son ought to be toward his parents; and, if you were not, you would have deserved, not only to be treated with indignity, but even to be put to death. It would indeed be an outrageous thing, if the laws concerning parents are to be binding upon children whom the father recognizes as his own, but are to be of no effect against those who have forced themselves inThe word chosen is the one properly used of aliens who seek to arrogate to themselves the rights of citizenship. and compelled an unwilling adoption.
