ABSTRACT
The Attic laws of inheritance were firmly based on the principle of male succession. The daughter inherited only if she had no brothers, and was looked upon as an heiress, during her father's lifetime, as after his death, becoming a means of conveying property to another male, as the regulations make clear. If she was unmarried, she could, if her father had not otherwise provided, be claimed in marriage by the next of kin, who was entitled to divorce his own wife in order to marry her. The property of the heiress passed to her son as soon as he came of age. That such regulations were acknowledged to be severe is clear from Plato, who, though making possible a plea of exemption in particular cases, nevertheless follows the generally accepted principles of Greek law, as he knew it, in laying down provisions for heiresses.
