§§ 8—10. Mantias treated his lawful wife with all affection, and me also her son; while Plangon the mistress and her brats held quite a secondary place, and were not acknowledged at all; nay, even on the death of his wife, he would have nothing to say to them. It was only when Boeotus being grown up had conspired with some goodfor-nothing friends of his to defraud me, and by their advice had brought a suit against my father to compel him, that he reluctantly acknowledged the children of the mistress; and the defendant gained his end by the perjury of the woman in collusion with Menecles.
ὥσπερ καὶ ὑμεῖς An appeal to the feelings of the judges, and a compliment to their character. The argumentum ad misericordiam is similarly seen in §§ 4, 5.
ὅντινα—τρόπον This must mean that he does not know and does not care to inquire how the connexion arose [45§3]. —ἐπλησίαζεν, ‘he formed a connexion with’ [59 §§ 19, 20, 41; Isaeus 3 § 10], a common sense of πελάζειν. Aesch. Suppl. 300 πελάζει, Soph. Trach. 17 “ἐμπελασθῆναι”, Eur. Andr. 25 πλαθεῖσα. Hence the Spartan word πλᾶτις, ‘a wife,’ Ar. Ach. 132.
