Greek Probate Law mon today — appear, as in the will of the philosopher Lycon.14 One duplicate of the Theophrastus will had four witnesses and another duplicate of the same had five witnesses,16 while in the Oxyrhynchus papyrus1" seven seals appear, that of the testator and those of six witnesses. Whether the law fixed a minimum, or fancy or cau tion dictated the number of witnesses, it certainly looks in some instances as though ample provision was taken against any ordinary testator outliving all the witnesses present at the attes tation function. And yet to-day the careful draftsman is increasingly apt to add at least one name to the number called for by statutory require ment. The four witnesses to the will of Acusilaus17 state that they recognize the seals which they had affixed to the original document, which in this instance is apparently an official copy given out to the testator for the purpose of adding a codicil.18 Isaeus, the celebrated testamentary expert and teacher of Demosthenes, in the case of Hagnon and Hagnotheus v. Chariades19— in which the genuineness of the soldier Nicostratos' will is contested, — leads us to infer that, in general, wit nesses were not told the contents of the will, and outside of illiterate testa tors or those laboring under similar disabilities, there would, of course, appear to exist no particular reason why the ante-mortem secrecy in the old Greek will should not be as valuable to peace of mind as with us to-day. Not only were the witnesses present at the execution of the will and their "Diogenes Laertius, 5, 8. 74. "Diogenes Laertius, 5, a. 57. '•Oxy. Pap. 3, n. 494, about 166 A. D. "Oxy. Pap. 3, n. 494. "See Wyse's "Isaeus," Commentary, Or. 4, p. 387. "Isaeus, Or. 4. u. 13.
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names recorded in the instrument, but protection and precaution against frauds and accidents were taken and means devised to effect the testator's intention that sometimes seem novel even to-day. Wills were oftentimes executed in dup licate as a safeguard against loss or dis appointed heirs who chanced to be not over-scrupuious. There were three "dup licates" of the will of Theophrastus the philosopher,20 three of the will of Arcesilas21 and two of Diodotos' will, one in the custody of Diogeiton and one in Diodotos' own house.22 This duplication of wills and separate custody of the executed documents is among the novel suggestions advanced by a prominent New York draftsman and legal text-book writer in his latest work on wills23 and most certainly has the sanction of classical practice, as the above extracts from old Greek legal his tory clearly reveal. That the custody must not only be separate but also trust worthy appealed to the Athenian with his keen legal instinct fully as strongly as to our expert; for the Hellenic will was entrusted to the keeping of reliable persons who were responsible under the stringent laws regulating the contract of "Deposit."24 So that between the hallowed temple vault for safekeeping and the comprehensive legislation that encouraged the individual custodians to a lively appreciation of their trust, the old Greek will enjoyed many of the advantages of our safe deposit box, and by the separate custody in vogue, avoided some of the temptations that this ordinarily useful adjunct of our banking institutions sometimes invites, "Diogenes Laertius, 5, s. 67. "Diogenes Laertius, as above, by which authority Aristotle's will is also quoted, 5, a. 12. "Lysias, Or. 32, s. 7. "Remsen, "On the Preparation and Contest of Wills," c. 1, p. 16, edition of 1907. "Isaeus, Or. 6, a. 7; and Or. 9, a. 6; Demosthenes Or. 45, s. 19; Diog. Laert. 4, 44 and 5, a. 67.
