Supposititious child
Appearance
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
- ^ Daniel Ogden, Greek bastardy in the classical and Hellenistic periods