Adelphi

Micio is an aging, easygoing Athenian bachelor whose strict and hardworking brother Demea permits him to adopt and rear Aeschinus, one of Demea’s two sons. Unlike his brother, Micio is a permissive parent, choosing to let pass many of Aeschinus’s small extravagances on the assumption that children are more likely to remain bound to their duty by ties of kindness than by those of fear. Micio comes to wonder if his policy raising his son Ctesipho is better.