34
On the other hand, he had had experience of me, having sufficiently tested me; he well knew what had been my behavior towards my father and mother, my care for my relatives and my capacity for managing my own affairs. He was well aware that in my official capacity as thesmotheteThis title was given to six junior archons, who presided at the allotment of the magistrates and were responsible for revising the laws. I have been neither unjust nor rapacious. It was then not in ignorance, but with full knowledge, that he was making me master of his property.
35
Further, I was no stranger but his own nephew; the services which I had rendered him were not unimportant but very considerable; he knew that I was not a man devoid of public spirit, who would be likely to squander his possessions, as my opponents have squandered the property which composes the estate, but that I should be anxious to act as a trierarch and go on service and act as choregus and do everything else that the state requires, as he himself had done.
36
Since I was his kinsman, his friend, his benefactor, and a man of public spirit, and had been approved as such, who could maintain that my adoption was not the act of a man of sound judgement? Indeed, I have already performed one of those acts, the promise of which had won his approval; for I have acted as gymnasiarchThe duty of a gymnasiarch at the festival of Prometheus was to provide a team to compete in the inter-tribal torch-race. at the festival of Prometheus in the present year with a liberality which all my fellow-tribesmen acknowledge. Please call the witnesses to prove that these statements are true.
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Witnesses
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These, gentlemen, are the just grounds on which we claim that we are entitled to keep the estate; and we beseech you to help us for the sake of Apollodorus and his father, for you will find that they were useful citizens and as zealous as possible for your interests.
