A History of the Family of Pasion

Abstract The purpose of this first chapter is to provide a narrative framework for the discussions of particular themes which form the remainder of the book. Although we know a lot more about the family of Pasion than we do about most other fourth-century families, much remains either unknown or open to doubt. Our information about Pasion and Apollodoros derives primarily from law-court speeches, which provide a series of snapshots rather than a continuous and comprehensive account. Moreover, such speeches were written with the sole purpose of persuading a jury, and therefore many of the statements made in them are at best tendentious, at worst untrue. The following account is consequently both fragmentary and speculative. In order to retain some degree of narrative flow, the detailed argumentation of controversial points (of which there are many) has been relegated to a series of end-notes.