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that, when fourteen years have elapsed from the time
when they gave my father a release, and twenty-two years after they had first
indicted him,1 when my father was now dead, with
whom the settlement had been made and also the guardians who after his death had
charge of our property, when their own mother, too, was dead, who was
well-informed regarding all these matters, and the arbitrators, the witnesses,
and almost everybody else, if I may so say, counting our inexperience and
necessary ignorance a boon to themselves, they have instituted these suits
against us, and have the audacity to make statements which are neither just nor
reasonable.
1 This passage offers difficulties. The best established text can be rendered only as above; but the question at once arises: why the long lapse of time between the filing of the suit and the settlement? Again, the use of γεγραμμένοι of a civil suit is suprising, although this difficulty might be met by assuming （with Kennedy） that a public prosecution is meant; but even so the eight year period remains unexplained. If with MS. A we read ἐγγεγραμμένοι and render, “after they had been enrolled as citizens,” we still have to ask why they should have waited eight years after attaining their majority before seeking an accounting from their guardians.
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by A. T. Murray, Ph.D., LL.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1939.
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