Chap. V. A N T I E N^ M E T A P H Y S I C S. 167 



And the common formula In the Roman law, of inftituthig a poilhu- 

 mous heir, was, ' If a fon or daughter be born to me within tea 

 ' months after my death, let him or her be my heir *.' 



And that this was as well known among the Greeks as among 

 the Romans, is evident from a ftory told by Herodotus, of a Spar- 

 tan King. This King, whofe name was Arillon, liking his friend's 

 wife better than his own, got her from him in exchange for fome- 

 thing elfe that he gave him ; a commerce not very unufual among 

 the Spartans, as Xenophon has informed us, in his treatife upon 

 the Polity of the Lacedemonians, This new wife of his was delivered 

 of a fon before the ten months, from the time he had got her, were 

 expired. Arifton got the nevv^s of his wife's delivery while he was 

 fitting in council with the Ephori : Upon which, counting the months 

 on his fingers, he fwore that the child could not be his, fuppofing 

 him to be the child of her former hufband. Of this he repented af- 

 terwards, and, acknowledging him for his fon, gave him the name 

 of Demaratus, for the reaibn mentioned by Herodotus. In confe- 

 quence of this acknowledgement of the father, he fucceeded to the 

 kingdom after the father's death ; but a party having been formed 

 againft him, and the oath of his father before the Ephori having 

 been called to remembrance, and the Oracle confulted upon the oc- 

 cafion, he was depofed, and another of the fame family put into 

 his place. Upon which, not brooking the life of a private man, he 

 fled to Xerxes, the Perfian King, and came with him into Greece f. 

 Before he went away, he had a converfation with his mother, which 

 Herodotus has related at great length. In this converfation, flie told 

 him, among other things, that Arlflon was miftaken, in fuppofing 



that 



* L. Galliis 29. D. dc Lib. et pojl Haercd. Infi. and L. Cod. quidam 4. D- D - 

 Poji Haercd. Injlit. Jul. Paul. Lib. 4. Lent. Tit. 7. § Septimo Menfc 



f Herodot. Lib. vi. Cap. 62- et feqiien. 



