Most of the information we have about inheritance law comes from speech by the Pseudo-Demosthenes, and has to do with regulations in force in the Classical period. But these regulations are, in the opinion of specialists, very probably dated to the time of Solon. From the law in question we learn indirectly what was in force in older times; that is, that the only persons called on to inherit were males and descendants in the male line. In the period after Solon, hereditary succession was given shape on the basis of anchisteia relationship (ties of blood). The ordering of kinsfolk into gene proved prescriptive: here a genos is taken to be all descendants of a single progenitor (a generation). The deceased's descendants were the first genos, and those of his father the second. The third genos comprised the deceased's grandfather's descendants; the fourth his great-grandfather's descendants, and so on. Of all the blood relations (anchisteis), the only ones who could assert their rights were the deceased's descendants and his father's descendants. It has been certainly established that descendants in the direct line took precedence over relatives from a lateral branch. Should these be minors, they were represented by their guardian. If the deceased left sons and daughters, the latter had right only to a dowry (epiproikoi). If he left only daughters, special epikleros regulations applied. Lastly, the prevailing opinion is that only if the deceased did not have legitimate descendants would the inheritance have passed to the lateral branch; though certain scholars hold that in that case, ancestors too (initially on the deceased's father's side, and later on his mother's side) were now called on to inherit. This calling on ancestors is not in accord with the basic idea of hereditary succession by intestacy, which was the discovery of a new chief for the oikos.