[51]
Yet, if in the case of those who are
proved to have hidden their real parentage and laid claim to a false one, you
rightly hold this to be a proof that they are aliens, surely in my case the
opposite should prove that I am a citizen. For in claiming the rights of
citizenship I should never have inscribed myself as the son of parents who were
both foreigners, but, if I had known any such thing, I should have sought out
persons to claim as my parents. But I knew nothing of the sort, and so, holding
fast to those who are my real parents, I claim Athenian citizenship.
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by Norman W. DeWitt, Ph.D., and Norman J. DeWitt, Ph.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1949.
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