13
For my part I cannot believe that anyone, when he was adopting a son, would have ventured to summon as witnesses any other persons except those with whom he was about to leave that son, to take his own place as an associate for the future in their religious and civic acts. Moreover, no one ought to be ashamed of summoning the largest possible number of witnesses to the execution of such a will, when there is a law which permits a man to bequeath his property to whomsoever he wishes.
14
Now consider the matter, gentlemen, from the point of view of the date which my opponents assign to the will. They say that he made these dispositions when he was sailing for Mytilene on military service; it is clear then from their account that he knew beforehand all that fate had in store for him! For he served first at Corinth, then in Thessaly and again throughout the Theban war,See Introduction. and wherever else he heard of an army being collected, he went abroad holding a command; yet never on his departure for any one of these campaigns did he leave a will behind him. The expedition to Mytilene was his last, for in it he perished.
