Posthumous Adoption in Classical Athens

Abstract

Posthumous adoption established the closest legitimate male relative (ἀγχιστεύς) as the legal successor to a person who died intestate without an heir. It was not necessary in legal terms, because the ἀγχιστεύς was entitled to inherit by kinship proximity. The difference was that posthumous adoption transferred the ἀγχιστεύς into the οἶκος of his late adoptive father, thereby precluding its extinction, whereas successio ab intestato led to the desolation of the οἶκος. The family’s decision to arrange a posthumous adoption was guided by moral and practical considerations: the latter included confirming one of the family members as the ἀγχιστεύς of the deceased person, and therefore of any of his closest relatives who also died intestate, and acquiring a larger property, which would formally belong to different family members, eliminating the need to perform more public service for the state.