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The Athenians had a law [or: custom] that when there was a legitimate daughter and a nothos son,[1] the nothos did not inherit the family property. Alternatively [the term epikleros means] she who has no other siblings as fellow kleros-inheritors, but is the sole kleros-inheritor. Since it was not possible for nothoi to inherit the kleros, they gave [her] control of the money. It was Attic law [or: custom] to bequeath [money] to nothoi up to the sum of 5 minas.
Agathias [writes]: "women were walking up and down the battlements: some of them mothers of the dead, some heiresses, some with a connection of another kind".[2]

*)epi/klhros: no/mos h)=n *)aqhnai/ois gnhsi/as me\n ou)/shs qugatro/s, no/qou de\ ui(ou=, mh\ klhronomei=n to\n no/qon ta\ patrw=|a. h)\ h( mh\ e)/xousa a)delfou\s e(te/rous sugklhrono/mous, a)lla\ monoklhrono/mos ou)=sa. e)peidh\ de\ ou)k e)ch=n toi=s no/qois klhronomei=n, ta)rgu/rion dia\ xeiro\s e)di/dosan. no/mos de\ h)=n *)attiko/s, toi=s no/qois me/xri e# mnw=n katalimpa/nein. *)agaqi/as: e)foi/twn de\ gunai=kes a)na\ tou\s promaxw=nas, tuxo\n me\n mhte/res ou)=sai tw=n a)polwlo/twn, tuxo\n de\ e)pi/klhroi, tuxo\n de\ o(tw|ou=n a)/llw| tro/pw| me/llon au)tai=s.

For primary note, and bibliography, see under epsilon 2384.
[1] e.g. born out of wedlock; cf. generally nu 448, nu 449.
[2] Agathias, Histories 1.12; cf. epsilon 3875. The women of Luca (present-day Lucca, in central Italy) react to the execution (which they soon discover to have been feigned) of prominent Lucchesi citizens by the Byzantine general Narses (cf. nu 42); cf. Frendo (20) and, for additional background, alpha 457, alpha 1709, and epsilon 917.

Catharine Roth (set status) on 5 November 2007@10:54:04.
David Whitehead (tweaked tr) on 6 November 2007@03:13:02.
David Whitehead on 14 October 2012@05:36:47.
Catharine Roth (coding) on 14 October 2012@23:38:47.
David Whitehead on 28 January 2016@06:42:06.
Ronald Allen (expanded n.2, added bibliography, added cross-references, added keyword) on 24 October 2023@22:16:19.
Catharine Roth (tweaked translation) on 25 October 2023@21:43:45.

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