7
When they had thus divided up the inheritance, having sworn not to transgress the terms agreed upon, each remained in possession of the share which he had received for twelve years. During all this period, though the courts sat, no one of them thought of claiming that there was any injustice in what had been done, until, when the city suffered misfortune and strife arose,The reference is to the internal troubles at Athens which followed the defeat at Aegospotami in 405 B.C. Dicaeogenes (III.) here, acting at the instigation of Melas the Egyptian, whose advice he followed in everything, claimed from us the whole estate, alleging that he had been adopted as sole heir by our uncle.
8
We thought him mad in bringing the action; for we could never imagine that the same man could at one time state that he had been adopted as heir to one-third and at another time that he had been adopted as sole heir, and be believed by you to be speaking the truth. However, on coming into court, though we had by far the better case, we were cheated of our rights, not by the judges but by Melas the Egyptian and his friends, who thought that the misfortunes of the city gave them liberty to possess themselves of other people's property and to bear false witness in support of one another, and by their acting in this manner the judges were misled.
9
Thus we, the victims of perjury, lost our property; for our father died not long after the case was tried and before he could prosecute those of the witnesses whom he had indicted. Dicaeogenes (III.), on obtaining against us the verdict which he desired, that very same day forcibly deprived of her share the daughter of Cephisophon of Paeania, the niece of Dicaeogenes (II.) who left the money; robbed the former wife of Democles of what Dicaeogenes (II.) had left her; and robbed the mother of Cephisodotus and Cephisodotus himself of all they possessed.
