εἰ .συνέβη τι παθεῖν κ.τ.λ. ‘If, in the ordinary course of nature, anything had happened to me’; a common euphemism for death. Cf. 23 § 59 and note on Or. 54 § 25.
οἷα πόλλ᾽ 8 § 41 ἐάν ποτε συμβῇ τι πταῖσμα, ἂ πολλὰ γένοιτ᾽ ἂν ἀνθρώπῳ.
ἐπεδικάζοντο Or. 43 Macart. § 55 τῆς ἐπικλήρου ἐπιδικαζεσθαι and ἐπεδικαζόμην γένει ὢν ἐγγυτἁτω. When there was no son to inherit the estate, the heiresses were bound to be married to their nearest relatives (not in the ascending line). The next of kin brought his claim before the chief Archon, whose duty it was ἐπιμελεῖσθαιτῶν ἐπικλήρων (Or. 43 § 75), public notice was given of the claim, and if no one appeared to dispute it, the Archon adjudged the heiress to him (ἐπεδίκασεν αὐτῷ τὴν ἐπίκληρον). If another claimant appeared, a court was held to decide the suit, according to the Athenian law of consanguinity. Cases even occurred in which the suitor would get his wife taken off his hands to enable him to marry such an heiress (e.g. Or. 47 § 41). If the ‘heiress’ was poor, and the nearest relative did not choose to marry her, he was bound to give her a marriage-portion according to his own fortune (C. R. Kennedy, Dict. Antiq. s. v. Epiclerus). Or. 43 § 54 lex, τῶν ἐπικλήρων ὅσαι θητικὸν τελοῦσιν, ἐὰν μὴ βούληται ἔχειν ὁ ἐγγύτατα γένους ἐκδιδότω ἐπιδοὺς κ.τ.λ. (Cf. Hermann-Thumser, Staatsalt. § 80 [120]; Thalheim, Rechtsalt. p. 66; Cambridge Companion to Greek Studies, § 579, with Pollux III 33; and see Aristoph. Vesp. 583—7.)
θεῖοι Phormion's sons being, like Apollodorus, sons of Archippe, would be ‘uncles’ to the daughters of their halfbrother Apollodorus.—ἡμεῖς is emphatically contrasted with εἰ πένης οὗτος ἦν (supra), as ὦν ἐγὼ ἔχω inf. with the implied ὦν οὖτος (Or ω<*>῀ν αὐτὸς) ἔχει.
συνεκδώσει 18 § 268; Lysias 19 § 59.
