[43]
This man, then, having shown himself so brutal and violent and having robbed his sisters of their fortune, is not content with the possession of their property, but, since he has not been punished, has now come forward to rob us of our grandfather's fortune; and having given our opponent—so we are informed—the paltry sum of two minae is exposing us to the risk of losing not only our property but also our fatherland. For if you are misled into the belief that our mother was not an Athenian citizen, neither are we citizens; for we were born after the archonship of Eucleides.1 Can it be said, therefore, that the suit which he has trumped up against us is of only trifling importance? While our grandfather and our father were alive, no charge was ever brought against us and our rights were never impeached;
1 The children of mothers who were not citizens, born after 403 B.C., did not enjoy civic rights.
Isaeus. Isaeus with an English translation by Edward Seymour Forster, M.A. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1962.
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