29
Also, it is probable that he who gave her in marriage would have summoned many more witnesses than the man who was marrying such a woman; for you all know that such unions are very seldom permanent. The man, then, who alleges that he gave his sister in marriage, declares that he married her to a man with a fortune of three talents without any agreement about a dowry, and the uncles have given evidence that they were present as witnesses on behalf of their nephew when he married a woman of this character without a dowry.
30
These same uncles have deposed that they were present by invitation of their nephew at the tenth-day ceremonyi.e., the ceremony of naming the child. in honor of the child who was declared to be his daughter. Here I note with the utmost indignation that the husband, in claiming her paternal inheritance on behalf of his wife, has put down her name as Phile, while Pyrrhus's uncles, alleging that they were present, deposed that her father called her Cleitarete, after her grandmother.
31
I am amazed that the man who had lived with her for more than eight years did not know the name of his own wife. Could he not have found it out before from his own witnesses? Did his wife's mother never in all that long period tell him her daughter's name? Did his uncle, Nicodemus himself, never do so?
32
No, her husband, instead of giving her her grandmother's name—if it was really known that this name was given her by her father—inscribed her name as Phile, and this when he was claiming the paternal inheritance for her! What was his object? Did the husband wish to deprive his wife of any title to the name of her grandmother bestowed upon her by her father?
