Page:History of Greece Vol III.djvu/155

TESTAMENTARY BEQUESTS ALLOWED BY SOLOS. 139 enjoyment to his life, and considers his relatives as having joint reversionary claims to his property, which take effect, in certain determinate proportions, after his death ; and this view was the more likely to prevail at Athens, inasmuch as the perpetuity of the family sacred rites, in which the children and near relatives partook of right, was considered by the Athenians as a matter of public as well as of private concern. Solon gave permission to every man dying without children to bequeathe his property by will as he should think tit, and the testament was maintained, unless it could be shown to have been procured by some compulsion or improper seduction. Speaking generally, this continued to be the law throughout the historical times of Athens. Sons, wher- ever there were sons, succeeded to the property of their father in equal shares, with the obligation of giving out their sisters in marriage along with a certain dowry. If there were no sons, then the daughters succeeded, though the father might by will, within certain limits, determine the person to whom they should be married, with their rights of succession attached to them ; or might, with the consent of his daughters, make by will certain other arrangements about his property. A person who had no children, or direct lineal descendants, might bequeathe his prop- erty at pleasure : if he died without a will, first his father, then his brother or brother's children, next his sister or sister's child- ren succeeded : if none such existed, then the cousins by the father's side, next the cousins by the mother's side, the male line of descent having preference over the female. Such was the principle of the Solonian laws of succession, though the particu- lars are in several ways obscure and doubtful. 1 Solon, it appears, was the first who gave power of superseding by testament the rights of agnates and gentiles to succession, a proceeding in consonance with his plan of encouraging both industrious occupa 1 Sec the Dissertation of Bunsen, De Jure Ilereditario Atheniensium, pp. 28, 29; and Hermann Schelling, De Solonis Legibus ap. Oratt. Atticos, eh. xvii. The adopted son was not allowed to bequeathe by will that property of which adoption had made him the possessor : if he left no legitimate chil dren, the heirs at law of the adopter cla/med it as of right (Demostheu eont_ Leochar p. 1100; cont. Stephan. B. p. 1133; Bunsen, nl sup. pp 55-53).