Quæ se inhonestè optavit parare hîc divitias
Potius, quàm in patriâ honestè pauper vivere
Some editors (vide Joan. Riveus) read this passage differently,
Quæ se inhonestè optavit parere hîc divitias
Potius, quàm in patriâ honestè paupera vivere.
Others, instead of Quæ se read Quæ sese: this is a very elegant pleonasm.
[NOTE 188.]
That wealth, however, now devolves to me.
The inhabitants of the island of Andros were subject to the Athenian laws, which prohibited women from bequeathing by will more than the value of a medimnum (μεδιμνον) of barley. The medimnum was equal to four English pecks and a half. Therefore, as Chrysis had not the power of bequeathing her property, Crito claimed it as heir at law. The Athenian laws relating to wills were very numerous, and very strict in guarding against an improper appropriation of property. Slaves, foreigners, minors, and adopted persons, as well as those who had male heirs, were, by the laws of Solon, rendered incapable of making a will.
Those persons who had no offspring of their own, frequently adopted the children of others, who inherited their estates. Sometimes foreigners were adopted, after having received the freedom of the city. A person who succeeded to the property of another, as heir at law, was bound, under a heavy penalty, to take care, (if on the spot,) that funeral honours were paid to the deceased. This was reckoned a point of great importance: the Greeks were willing to proceed to any extremity rather than suffer their friends to want the rites of sepulture, as we see in Lucretius, who describes the outrageous actions to which the people were driven during a plague; when they committed acts of the greatest violence, rather than permit their friends to want funeral honours.
“Multaque vis subita, et paupertas horrida suasit;