[41]
Protomachus was a poor man, but becoming entitled to inherit
a large estate by marrying an heiress,1 and
wishing to give my mother in marriage, he persuaded my father Thucritus, an
acquaintance of his, to take her, and my father received my mother in marriage
at the hands of her brother Timocrates of Melitê, in the presence of
both his own uncles and other witnesses; and of these as many as are still
living shall give testimony before you.
1 A woman could not inherit property but herself passed with the estate to the nearest male heir. He was then entitled, and obliged, to marry her or to give her in marriage. If he chose the former alternative and was alread married, he necessarily divorced his wife or gave her in marriage to another.
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by Norman W. DeWitt, Ph.D., and Norman J. DeWitt, Ph.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1949.
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