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After this will you regard the testimony of Nicodemus as more worthy of credence than the evidence provided by our uncle's own acts?ἐκμαρτυρία, which is strictly a technical term meaning a deposition taken in writing outside the court, is here rhetorically used for the evidence of a person's acts. And will anyone attempt to persuade you that our uncle made a legal marriage with this woman who was a common courtezan? No, you will never, I am sure, believe it unless Nicodemus can explain the following points, which I mentioned at the beginning of my speech;
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First, with what dowry does he say that he married his sister to Pyrrhus? Secondly, before what archon did this married woman give notice of having quitted her husband or his domicile? Next, from whom did Nicodemus recover her dowry, when the man had died to whom he says that he gave her in marriage? Or if, though he demanded it back, he was unable to recover in the course of twenty years, what action did he bring for alimony or for her dowry on behalf of this married woman against the tenant of Pyrrhus's estate?
