Supposititious children

Supposititious children are fraudulent offspring. These arose when an heir was required and so a suitable baby might be procured and passed off as genuine.

This was a common concern in the classical period as there were dealers in supposititious children who would provide them for a fee. Laws were passed to counter this and those found to be illegitimate might be sold into slavery.[1]

References

  1. ↑ Daniel Ogden, Greek bastardy in the classical and Hellenistic periods
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