[4]
The nobility of
birth of these men has been acknowledged from time immemorial by all mankind.
For it is possible for them and for each one of their remote ancestors man by
man to trace back their being, not only to a physical father, but also to this
land of theirs as a whole, a common possession, of which they are acknowledged
to be the indigenous children.1
For alone of all mankind they settled the very land from which they were born
and handed it down to their descendants, so that justly one may assume that
those who came as migrants into their cities and are denominated citizens of the
same are comparable to adopted children; but these men are citizens of their
native land by right of legitimate birth.2
1 This topic appears in Plat. Menex. 237 b-c.
2 This topic appears in Hyp. Epitaph. 7.
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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