4
Demosthenes, my father, men of the jury, left at his death an estate of nearly fourteen talents, a son, myself, aged seven, and my sister, aged five, and his widow, our mother, who had brought him a fortune of fifty minae. He had taken thought for our welfare, and, when he was about to die, put all this property in the hands of the defendant, Aphobus, and Demophon, son of Demo, nephews of his, one by his brother, the other by his sister, and of Therippides of Paeania,Paeania was a deme of the tribe Pandionis. who was not a relative, but had been his friend from boyhood.
5
To Therippides he gave the interest on seventy minae of my property, to be enjoyed by him until I should come of age,At Athens a youth, on reaching the age of eighteen, was, after an official examination (δοκιμασία), duly entered on the list of the members of his tribe, and assumed the status and the duties of a citizen. in order that avarice might not tempt him to mismanage my affairs. To Demophon he gave my sister with a dowry of two talents, to be paid at once, and to the defendant himself he gave our mother with a dowry of eighty minae, and the right to use my house and furniture. His thought was that, if he should unite these men to me by still closer ties, they would look after my interests the better because of this added bond of kinship.
