previous next

τοῦ ἐπικαθημένου ‘The manager, the clerk, of the bank.’ Elsewhere Phormion himself is described by Apoll. as τὸν ἐπικαθήμενον ἐπὶ τῆς τραπέζης (Or. 49 § 17, cf. 49 § 33) and καθήμενον καὶ διοικοῦντα ἐπὶ τῇ τραπέζῃ (Or. 45 § 33), Isocr. Or. 17 (Trapez.) § 12, Pollux III 84 ἐπικαθήμενος τραπέζῃ, S. Matt. ix 9 καθήμενον ἐπὶ (in charge over) τὸ τελώνον.

ἀρρωστίας Pasion's failing health is touched upon in Or. 52 § 13 ἀδυνάτως ἤδη ἔχοντα καὶ μόγις εἰς ἄστυ ἀναβαίνοντα καὶ τὸν ὀφθαλμὸν αὐτὸν προδιδόντα, and in Or. 49 § 42 ἔλεγεν ἀρρωστῶν τι ὀφείλοιτο αὐτῷ ἕκαστον.

μαρτυρίας..παρ᾽ οἷς=μ. τούτων τῶν μαρτύρων παρ᾽ οἷς (cf. Or. 30 § 24 τὰς μαρτυρίας ὧν ἐναντίον ἀπεκρίναντο), ‘the depositions of the persons to whose keeping the will has been entrusted’ (cf. Isaeus 6 §§ 7, 27; 7 § 1; 9 §§ 5, 6, 18). In times when there were no probate-courts, it is obvious that the greatest precautions had to be taken to prevent forgeries by interested parties. In Or. 45 § 19 one Cephisophon deposes that his father had left behind him at his death, a document endorsed ‘Pasion's Will,’ which Apollodorus (ib. §§ 5, 22) denounces as a forgery (οὐδεπώποτε γενομένη ..κατεσκευασμένη). The alleged terms are given ib. § 28, quoted in part in ὑπὁθεσις l. 6 n. The plural παρ᾽ οἷς is inaccurate, as the will appears to have been in the custody of a single person only.

Probably the only instances we have of a will being in official custody are (1) Isaeus 1 §§ 14, 15, 25, where it is in the hands of one of the ἀστυνόμοι, and (2) an inscription from Amorgos (C. I. G. 2264 u), κατὰ τὰς διαθήκας τὰς κειμένας ἐν ἱερῷ τῆς Ἀφροδίτης καὶ παρ᾽ Εὐνομίδη τῷ ἄρχοντι καὶ παρὰ τῷ θεσμοθέτῃ Κτησιφῶντι (Meier and Schomann, p. 52, note 31 ed. Lipsius).

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide References (5 total)
  • Commentary references from this page (5):
    • Demosthenes, Against Stephanus 1, 19
    • Demosthenes, Against Stephanus 1, 33
    • Demosthenes, Against Timotheus, 17
    • Demosthenes, Against Timotheus, 42
    • Demosthenes, Against Callippus, 13
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: