I should be only too pleased, sirs, to have you so disposed towards me in judging this case as you would be to yourselves, if you found yourselves in my plight. For I am sure that, if you had the same feelings about others as about yourselves, not one of you but would be indignant at what has been done; you would all regard the penalties appointed for those who resort to such practices as too mild. [2] And these feelings would be found, not only among you, but in the whole of Greece: for in the case of this crime alone, under both democracy and oligarchy, the same requital is accorded to the weakest against the strongest, so that the lowest gets the same treatment as the highest.1 Thus you see, sirs, how all men abominate this outrage. [3] Well, I conceive that, in regard to the severity of the penalty, you are all of the same mind, and that not one of you is so easygoing as to think it right that men who are guilty of such acts should obtain pardon, or to presume that slight penalties suffice for their deserts. [4] But I take it, sirs, that what I have to show is that Eratosthenes had an intrigue with my wife, and not only corrupted her but inflicted disgrace upon my children and an outrage on myself by entering my house; that this was the one and only enmity between him and me; that I have not acted thus for the sake of money, so as to raise myself from poverty to wealth; and that all I seek to gain is the requital accorded by our laws. [5] I shall therefore set forth to you the whole of my story from the beginning; I shall omit nothing, but will tell the truth. For I consider that my own sole deliverance rests on my telling you, if I am able, the whole of what has occurred. [6]

When I, Athenians, decided to marry, and brought a wife into my house, for some time I was disposed neither to vex her nor to leave her too free to do just as she pleased; I kept a watch on her as far as possible, with such observation of her as was reasonable. But when a child was born to me, thence-forward I began to trust her, and placed all my affairs in her hands, presuming that we were now in perfect intimacy. [7] It is true that in the early days, Athenians, she was the most excellent of wives; she was a clever, frugal housekeeper, and kept everything in the nicest order. But as soon as I lost my mother, her death became the cause of all my troubles. [8] For it was in attending her funeral that my wife was seen by this man, who in time corrupted her. He looked out for the servant-girl who went to market, and so paid addresses to her mistress by which he wrought her ruin. [9] Now in the first place I must tell you, sirs （for I am obliged to give you these particulars）, my dwelling is on two floors, the upper being equal in space to the lower, with the women's quarters above and the men's below. When the child was born to us, its mother suckled it; and in order that, each time that it had to be washed, she might avoid the risk of descending by the stairs, I used to live above, and the women below. [10] By this time it had become such an habitual thing that my wife would often leave me and go down to sleep with the child, so as to be able to give it the breast and stop its crying. Things went on in this way for a long time, and I never suspected, but was simple-minded enough to suppose that my own was the chastest wife in the city. [11] Time went on, sirs; I came home unexpectedly from the country, and after dinner the child started crying in a peevish way, as the servant-girl was annoying it on purpose to make it so behave; for the man was in the house— [12] I learnt it all later. So I bade my wife go and give the child her breast, to stop its howling. At first she refused, as though delighted to see me home again after so long; but when I began to be angry and bade her go, —“Yes, so that you,”she said, “may have a try here at the little maid. Once before, too, when you were drunk, you pulled her about.” [13] At that I laughed, while she got up, went out of the room, and closed the door, feigning to make fun, and she took the key away with her. I, without giving a thought to the matter, or having any suspicion, went to sleep in all content after my return from the country. [14] Towards daytime she came and opened the door. I asked why the doors made a noise in the night; she told me that the child's lamp had gone out, and she had lit it again at our neighbor's. I was silent and believed it was so. But it struck me, sirs, that she had powdered her face,2 though her brother had died not thirty days before; even so, however, I made no remark on the fact, but left the house in silence. [15] After this, sirs, an interval occurred in which I was left quite unaware of my own injuries; I was then accosted by a certain old female, who was secretly sent by a woman with whom that man was having an intrigue, as I heard later. This woman was angry with him and felt herself wronged, because he no longer visited her so regularly, and she was keeping a watch on him until she should discover what was the cause. [16] So the old creature accosted me where she was on the look-out, near my house, and said,—“Euphiletus, do not think it is from any meddlesomeness that I have approached you; for the man who is working both your and your wife's dishonor happens to be our enemy. If, therefore, you take the servant-girl who goes to market and waits on you, and torture her, you will learn all. It is,” she said, “Eratosthenes of Oe who is doing this; he has debauched not only your wife, but many others besides; he makes an art of it.” [17] With these words, sirs, she took herself off; I was at once perturbed; all that had happened came into my mind, and I was filled with suspicion,—reflecting first how I was shut up in my chamber, and then remembering how on that night the inner and outer doors made a noise, which had never occurred before, and how it struck me that my wife had put on powder. All these things came into my mind, and I was filled with suspicion. [18] Returning home, I bade the servant-girl follow me to the market, and taking her to the house of an intimate friend, I told her I was fully informed of what was going on in my house: “So it is open to you,” I said, “to choose as you please between two things,—either to be whipped and thrown into a mill, and to be irrevocably immersed in that sort of misery, or else to speak out the whole truth and, instead of suffering any harm, obtain my pardon for your transgressions. Tell no lies, but speak the whole truth.” [19] The girl at first denied it, and bade me do what I pleased, for she knew nothing; but when I mentioned Eratosthenes to her, and said that he was the man who visited my wife, she was dismayed, supposing that I had exact knowledge of everything. At once she threw herself down at my knees, and having got my pledge that she should suffer no harm, [20] she accused him, first, of approaching her after the funeral, and then told how at last she became his messenger; how my wife in time was persuaded, and by what means she procured his entrances, and how at the Thesmophoria3, while I was in the country, she went off to the temple with his mother. And the girl gave an exact account of everything else that had occurred. [21] When her tale was all told, I said,—“Well now, see that nobody in the world gets knowledge of this; otherwise, nothing in your arrangement with me will hold good. And I require that you show me their guilt in the very act; I want no words, but manifestation of the fact, if it really is so.” She agreed to do this. [22] Then came an interval of four or five days … as I shall bring strong evidence to show. But first I wish to relate what took place on the last day. I had an intimate friend named Sostratus. After sunset I met him coming from the country. As I knew that, arriving at that hour, he would find none of his circle at home, I invited him to dine with me; we came to my house, mounted to the upper room, and had dinner. [23] When he had made a good meal, he left me and departed; then I went to bed. Eratosthenes, sirs, entered, and the maid-servant roused me at once, and told me that he was in the house. Bidding her look after the door, I descended and went out in silence; I called on one friend and another, and found some of them at home, while others were out of town. [24] I took with me as many as I could among those who were there, and so came along. Then we got torches from the nearest shop, and went in; the door was open, as the girl had it in readiness. We pushed open the door of the bedroom, and the first of us to enter were in time to see him lying down by my wife; those who followed saw him standing naked on the bed. [25] I gave him a blow, sirs, which knocked him down, and pulling round his two hands behind his back, and tying them, I asked him why he had the insolence to enter my house. He admitted his guilt; then he besought and implored me not to kill him, but to exact a sum of money. [26] To this I replied, “It is not I who am going to kill you, but our city's law, which you have transgressed and regarded as of less account than your pleasures, choosing rather to commit this foul offence against my wife and my children than to obey the laws like a decent person.” [27]

Thus it was, sirs, that this man incurred the fate that the laws ordain for those who do such things; he had not been dragged in there from the street, nor had he taken refuge at my hearth4, as these people say. For how could it be so, when it was in the bedroom that he was struck and fell down then and there, and I pinioned his arms, and so many persons were in the house that he could not make his escape, as he had neither steel nor wood nor anything else with which he might have beaten off those who had entered? [28] But, sirs, I think you know as well as I that those whose acts are against justice do not acknowledge that their enemies speak the truth, but lie themselves and use other such devices to foment anger in their hearers against those whose acts are just. So, first read the law.“Law” [29]

He did not dispute it, sirs: he acknowledged his guilt, and besought and implored that he might not be killed, and was ready to pay compensation in money. But I would not agree to his estimate, as I held that our city's law should have higher authority; and I obtained that satisfaction which you deemed most just when you imposed it on those who adopt such courses. Now, let my witnesses come forward in support of these statements.“Witnesses” [30]

Read out also, please, that law from the pillar in the Areopagus.“Law”

You hear, sirs, how the Court of the Areopagus itself, to which has been assigned, in our own as in our fathers' time, the trial of suits for murder, has expressly stated that whoever takes this vengeance on an adulterer caught in the act with his spouse shall not be convicted of murder. [31] And so strongly was the lawgiver convinced of the justice of this in the case of wedded wives, that he even applied the same penalty in the case of mistresses, who are of less account. Now surely it is clear that, if he had had any heavier punishment than this for the case of married women, he would have imposed it. But in fact, as he was unable to devise a severer one for this case, he ordained that it should be the same for that of mistresses also. Please read this law besides.“Law” [32]

You hear, sirs, how it directs that, if anyone forcibly debauches a free adult or child, he shall be liable to double5 damages; while if he so debauches a woman, in one of the cases where it is permitted to kill him, he is subject to the same rule. Thus the lawgiver, sirs, considered that those who use force deserve a less penalty than those who use persuasion; for the latter he condemned to death, whereas for the former he doubled the damages, [33] considering that those who achieve their ends by force are hated by the persons forced; while those who used persuasion corrupted thereby their victims' souls, thus making the wives of others more closely attached to themselves than to their husbands, and got the whole house into their hands, and caused uncertainty as to whose the children really were, the husbands' or the adulterers'. In view of all this the author of the law made death their penalty. [34] Wherefore I, sirs, not only stand acquitted of wrongdoing by the laws, but am also directed by them to take this satisfaction: it is for you to decide whether they are to be valid or of no account. [35] For to my thinking every city makes its laws in order that on any matter which perplexes us we may resort to them and inquire what we have to do. And so it is they who, in cases like the present, exhort the wronged parties to obtain this kind of satisfaction. [36] I call upon you to support their opinion: otherwise, you will be giving adulterers such licence that you will encourage thieves as well to call themselves adulterers; since they will feel assured that, if they plead this reason in their defence, and allege that they enter other men's houses for this purpose, nobody will touch them. For everyone will know that the laws on adultery are to be given the go-by, and that it is your vote that one has to fear, because this has supreme authority over all the city's affairs. [37]

Do but consider, sirs, what they say: they accuse me of ordering the maid-servant on that day to go and fetch the young man. Now I, sirs, could have held myself justified in using any possible means to catch the corrupter of my wife. [38] For if I had bidden the girl fetch him, when words alone had been spoken and no act had been committed, I should have been in the wrong: but if, when once he had compassed all his ends, and had frequently entered my house, I had then used any possible means to catch him, I should have considered myself quite in order. [39] And observe how on this point also they are lying: you will perceive it easily in this way. As I told you, sirs, before, Sostratus was a friend of mine, on intimate terms with me; he met me as he came from the country about sunset, and had dinner with me, and when he had made a good meal he left me and departed. Now in the first place, sirs, you must bear this in mind: [40] if on that night I had designs on Eratosthenes, which was more to my advantage, —to go and take my dinner elsewhere, or to bring in my guest to dinner with me? For in the latter case that man would have been less likely to venture on entering my house. And in the second place, do you suppose that I should have let my dinner guest go and leave me there alone and unsupported, and not rather have bidden him stay, in order that he might stand by me in taking vengeance upon the adulterer? [41] Then again, sirs, do you not think that I should have sent word to my intimate acquaintances in the daytime, and bidden them assemble at the house of one of my friends living nearest to me, rather than have waited till the moment of making my discovery to run round in the night, without knowing whom I should find at home, and who were away? Thus I called on Harmodius, and one other, who were not in town —of this I was not aware—and others, I found, were not in; but those whom I could I took along with me. [42] Yet if I had foreknown this, do you not think that I should have called up servants and passed the word to my friends, in order that I might have gone in myself with all possible safety, —for how could I tell whether he too had some weapon? —and so I might have had as many witnesses as possible with me when I took my vengeance? But as in fact I knew nothing of what was to befall on that night, I took with me those whom I could. Now let my witnesses come forward in support of all this.“Witnesses” [43]

You have heard the witnesses, sirs; and consider this affair further in your own minds, asking yourselves whether any enmity has ever arisen before this between me and Eratosthenes. [44] I say you will discover none. For he had neither subjected me to slanderous impeachment, nor attempted to expel me from the city, nor brought any private suit against me, nor was he privy to any wrongdoing which I was so afraid of being divulged that I was intent on his destruction, nor, should I accomplish this, had I any hope of getting money from anywhere: for there are people who plot each other's death for such purposes. [45] So far, indeed, from either abuse or a drunken brawl or any other quarrel having occurred between us, I had never even seen the man before that night. For what object, then, should I run so grave a risk, unless I had received from him the greatest of injuries? [46] Why, again, did I choose to summon witnesses for my wicked act, when it was open to me, if I was thus criminally intent on his destruction, to have none of them privy to it? [47]

I therefore, sirs, do not regard this requital as having been exacted in my own private interest, but in that of the whole city. For those who behave in that way, when they see the sort of reward that is in store for such transgressions, will be less inclined to trespass against their neighbors, if they see that you also take the same view. [48] Otherwise it were better far to erase our established laws, and ordain others which will inflict the penalties on men who keep watch on their own wives, and will allow full immunity to those who would debauch them. [49] This would be a far more just way than to let the citizens be entrapped by the laws; these may bid a man, on catching an adulterer, to deal with him in whatever way he pleases, but the trials are found to be more dangerous to the wronged parties than to those who, in defiance of the laws, dishonor the wives of others. [50] For I am now risking the loss of life, property and all else that I have, because I obeyed the city's laws.

1 The general statement in these last words shows that the full sense of the preceding is: “the same requital is accorded to the weakest against the strongest as to the strongest against the weakest.”

2 Athenian women used white lead to give an artificial delicacy to their complexion; cf. Aristoph. Eccl. 878, 929.

3 A festival in honor of Demeter, celebrated by Athenian matrons in October.

4 The hearth in a Greek house retained its primitive sanctity as a center of the family religion, and it would be sacrilege to kill anyone there.

5 i.e., double the amount laid down for violating a slave.

If I believed it possible, friends who are attending this burial, to set forth in speech the valor of the men who lie here, I should have reproved those who gave me but a few days' notice of having to speak over them. But as all mankind would find all time insufficient for preparing a speech to match their deeds, the city itself therefore, as I think, taking forethought for those who speak here, makes the appointment at short notice, in the belief that on such terms they will most readily obtain indulgence from their hearers. [2] However, while my speech is about these men, my contest is not with their deeds, but with the speakers who have preceded me in praising them. For their valor has provided matter in such abundance, alike for those who are able to compose in verse and for those who have chosen to make a speech, that, although many fair things have been spoken by those who preceded me, there are many that even they have omitted, and plenty more remain to be said by those who succeed them; since nowhere is there any land or sea on which they did not venture, and in every place and every nation the people, is lamenting their own disasters, glorify the valorous deeds of these men. [3]

So now, in the first place, I shall recount the ancient ordeals of our ancestors, drawing remembrance thereof from their renown. For they also are events which all men ought to remember, glorifying them in their songs, and describing them in the sage sayings of worthy minds; honoring them on such occasions as this, and finding in the achievements of the dead so many lessons for the living. [4]

In ancient times were the Amazons, daughters of Ares, dwelling beside the river Thermodon;1 they alone of the people round about were armed with iron, and they were first of all to mount horses, with which, owing to the inexperience of their foes, they surprised them and either caught those who fled, or outstripped those who pursued. They were accounted as men for their high courage, rather than as women for their sex; so much more did they seem to excel men in their spirit than to be at a disadvantage in their form. [5] Ruling over many nations, they had in fact achieved the enslavement of those around them; yet, hearing by report concerning this our country how great was its renown, they were moved by increase of glory and high ambition to muster the most warlike of the nations and march with them against this city. But having met with valiant men they found their spirit now was like to their sex; the repute that they got was the reverse of the former, and by their perils rather than by their bodies they were deemed to be women. [6] They stood alone in failing to learn from their mistakes, and so to be better advised in their future actions; they would not return home and report their own misfortune and our ancestors' valor: for they perished on the spot, and were punished for their folly, thus making our city's memory imperishable for its valor; while owing to their disaster in this region they rendered their own country nameless. And so those women, by their unjust greed for others' land, justly lost their own. [7]

When Adrastus2 and Polyneices had marched against Thebes and had been vanquished in battle, and the Cadmeans would not allow the corpses to be buried, the Athenians decided that, if those men had done some wrong, they had paid by their death the heaviest penalty, while the gods below were not obtaining their dues, and by the pollution of the shrines the gods above were being treated with impiety: so first they sent heralds and requested permission to take up the corpses, [8] considering it to be the duty of brave men to take vengeance on their enemies while they lived, but a mark of self-distrust to display their valor over the bodies of the dead. When they failed to obtain this, they marched against them: no previous quarrel subsisted between them and the Cadmeans, nor did they wish to gratify the Argives who were yet living; [9] but thinking it right that those who had died in the war should receive the customary treatment, they risked combat with one of the parties in the interest of both, that on the one side they should cease from grossly outraging the gods by their trespass against the dead, and that on the other they should not hasten away to their own land frustrated of an ancestral honor, cut off from Hellenic custom, and disappointed in a common hope. [10] With these thoughts in their minds, and holding that the fortunes of war are shared by all men in common, they faced a numerous enemy, but had justice as their ally, and they fought and conquered. And they did not allow themselves to be so elated by their fortune as to seek a heavier punishment of the Cadmeans, but in contrast to their impiety showed forth their own virtue, and obtaining for themselves the price for which they had come—the corpses of the Argives—they buried them in their own land of Eleusis. Such, then, is the character that they have evinced in regard to those of the Seven against Thebes who were slain.3 [11]

In a later time, when Heracles had vanished from amongst men, and his children were fleeing from Eurystheus and were expelled by all the Greeks, who were ashamed of these acts but afraid of Eurystheus' power, they came to this city, and seated themselves as suppliants at our altars.4 [12] And when Eurystheus demanded them, the Athenians refused to give them up, but revered the virtue of Heracles more than they feared their own danger, and preferred to do battle for the weaker on the side of right, rather than favor the powerful by giving up to them the men whom they had wronged. [13] Eurystheus marched against them with the people who held the Peloponnese at that time; yet they did not falter at the approach of the danger, but maintained the same resolve as before, though they had received no particular benefit at the father's hands, and could not tell what manner of men the sons would grow to be. [14] Acting on what they held to be just, on no grounds of former enmity against Eurystheus, with no gain in view but good repute, they made this perilous venture on behalf of those children, pitying the wronged and hating the oppressor; attempting to check the one, and engaging to assist the other; conceiving it a sign of freedom to do nothing against one's will, of justice to succor the wronged, and of courage to die, if need be, in fighting for those two things at once. [15] So high was the spirit of both sides that Eurystheus and his forces sought no advantage from any offer of the Athenians, while the Athenians would not suffer Eurystheus, even at his own supplication, to take away their suppliants. Having arrayed their own sole force against the host assembled from the whole Peloponnese, they conquered them in battle, rescued the sons of Heracles from bodily peril, liberating also their souls by ridding them of fear, and by their own daring crowned the sons with the meed of their father's valor. [16] So much happier in the event were these, the children, than the father; for he, though author of many benefits to all mankind, devoting his life to a laborious quest of victory and honor, did indeed chastise those who wronged others, but was unable to punish Eurystheus, who was both his enemy and his oppressor. Whereas his sons, thanks to this city, saw on the same day both their own deliverance and the punishment of their enemies. [17]

Now in many ways it was natural to our ancestors, moved by a single resolve, to fight the battles of justice: for the very beginning of their life was just. They had not been collected, like most nations, from every quarter, and had not settled in a foreign land after driving out its people: they were born of the soil, and possessed in one and the same country their mother and their fatherland. [18] They were the first and the only people in that time to drive out the ruling classes5 of their state and to establish a democracy, believing the liberty of all to be the strongest bond of agreement; by sharing with each other the hopes born of their perils they had freedom of soul in, their civic life, [19] and used law for honoring the good and punishing the evil. For they deemed that it was the way of wild beasts to be held subject to one another by force, but the duty of men to delimit justice by law, to convince by reason, and to serve these two in act by submitting to the sovereignty of law and the instruction of reason. [20]

For indeed, being of noble stock and having minds as noble, the ancestors of those who lie here achieved many noble and admirable things; but ever memorable and mighty are the trophies that their descendants have everywhere left behind them owing to their valor. For they alone risked their all in defending the whole of Greece against many myriads of the barbarians. [21] For the King of Asia, not content with the wealth that he had already, but hoping to enslave Europe as well, dispatched an army of five hundred thousand. These, supposing that, if they obtained the willing friendship of this city or overwhelmed its resistance, they would easily dominate the rest of the Greeks, landed at Marathon, thinking that we should be most destitute of allies if they made their venture at a moment when Greece was in dissension as to the best means of repelling the invaders. [22] Besides, from the former actions of our city they had conceived a particular opinion of her: they thought that if they attacked another city first, they would be at war with it and Athens as well, for she would be zealous in coming to succor her injured neighbors; but if they made their way here first, no Greeks elsewhere would dare attempt the deliverance of others, and for their sake incur the open hostility of the foreigners. [23] These, then, were the motives of the foe. But our ancestors, without stopping to calculate the hazards of the war, but h Funeral Oration

If I believed it possible, friends who are attending this burial, to set forth in speech the valor of the men who lie here, I should have reproved those who gave me but a few days' notice of having to speak over them. But as all mankind would find all time insufficient for preparing a speech to match their deeds, the city itself therefore, as I think, taking forethought for those who speak here, makes the appointment at short notice, in the belief that on such terms they will most readily obtain indulgence from their hearers. [2] However, while my speech is about these men, my contest is not with their deeds, but with the speakers who have preceded me in praising them. For their valor has provided matter in such abundance, alike for those who are able to compose in verse and for those who have chosen to make a speech, that, although many fair things have been spoken by those who preceded me, there are many that even they have omitted, and plenty more remain to be said by those who succeed them; since nowhere is there any land or sea on which they did not venture, and in every place and every nation the people, is lamenting their own disasters, glorify the valorous deeds of these men. [3]

So now, in the first place, I shall recount the ancient ordeals of our ancestors, drawing remembrance thereof from their renown. For they also are events which all men ought to remember, glorifying them in their songs, and describing them in the sage sayings of worthy minds; honoring them on such occasions as this, and finding in the achievements of the dead so many lessons for the living. [4]

In ancient times were the Amazons, daughters of Ares, dwelling beside the river Thermodon;1 they alone of the people round about were armed with iron, and they were first of all to mount horses, with which, owing to the inexperience of their foes, they surprised them and either caught those who fled, or outstripped those who pursued. They were accounted as men for their high courage, rather than as women for their sex; so much more did they seem to excel men in their spirit than to be at a disadvantage in their form. [5] Ruling over many nations, they had in fact achieved the enslavement of those around them; yet, hearing by report concerning this our country how great was its renown, they were moved by increase of glory and high ambition to muster the most warlike of the nations and march with them against this city. But having met with valiant men they found their spirit now was like to their sex; the repute that they got was the reverse of the former, and by their perils rather than by their bodies they were deemed to be women. [6] They stood alone in failing to learn from their mistakes, and so to be better advised in their future actions; they would not return home and report their own misfortune and our ancestors' valor: for they perished on the spot, and were punished for their folly, thus making our city's memory imperishable for its valor; while owing to their disaster in this region they rendered their own country nameless. And so those women, by their unjust greed for others' land, justly lost their own. [7]

When Adrastus2 and Polyneices had marched against Thebes and had been vanquished in battle, and the Cadmeans would not allow the corpses to be buried, the Athenians decided that, if those men had done some wrong, they had paid by their death the heaviest penalty, while the gods below were not obtaining their dues, and by the pollution of the shrines the gods above were being treated with impiety: so first they sent heralds and requested permission to take up the corpses, [8] considering it to be the duty of brave men to take vengeance on their enemies while they lived, but a mark of self-distrust to display their valor over the bodies of the dead. When they failed to obtain this, they marched against them: no previous quarrel subsisted between them and the Cadmeans, nor did they wish to gratify the Argives who were yet living; [9] but thinking it right that those who had died in the war should receive the customary treatment, they risked combat with one of the parties in the interest of both, that on the one side they should cease from grossly outraging the gods by their trespass against the dead, and that on the other they should not hasten away to their own land frustrated of an ancestral honor, cut off from Hellenic custom, and disappointed in a common hope. [10] With these thoughts in their minds, and holding that the fortunes of war are shared by all men in common, they faced a numerous enemy, but had justice as their ally, and they fought and conquered. And they did not allow themselves to be so elated by their fortune as to seek a heavier punishment of the Cadmeans, but in contrast to their impiety showed forth their own virtue, and obtaining for themselves the price for which they had come—the corpses of the Argives—they buried them in their own land of Eleusis. Such, then, is the character that they have evinced in regard to those of the Seven against Thebes who were slain.3 [11]

In a later time, when Heracles had vanished from amongst men, and his children were fleeing from Eurystheus and were expelled by all the Greeks, who were ashamed of these acts but afraid of Eurystheus' power, they came to this city, and seated themselves as suppliants at our altars.4 [12] And when Eurystheus demanded them, the Athenians refused to give them up, but revered the virtue of Heracles more than they feared their own danger, and preferred to do battle for the weaker on the side of right, rather than favor the powerful by giving up to them the men whom they had wronged. [13] Eurystheus marched against them with the people who held the Peloponnese at that time; yet they did not falter at the approach of the danger, but maintained the same resolve as before, though they had received no particular benefit at the father's hands, and could not tell what manner of men the sons would grow to be. [14] Acting on what they held to be just, on no grounds of former enmity against Eurystheus, with no gain in view but good repute, they made this perilous venture on behalf of those children, pitying the wronged and hating the oppressor; attempting to check the one, and engaging to assist the other; conceiving it a sign of freedom to do nothing against one's will, of justice to succor the wronged, and of courage to die, if need be, in fighting for those two things at once. [15] So high was the spirit of both sides that Eurystheus and his forces sought no advantage from any offer of the Athenians, while the Athenians would not suffer Eurystheus, even at his own supplication, to take away their suppliants. Having arrayed their own sole force against the host assembled from the whole Peloponnese, they conquered them in battle, rescued the sons of Heracles from bodily peril, liberating also their souls by ridding them of fear, and by their own daring crowned the sons with the meed of their father's valor. [16] So much happier in the event were these, the children, than the father; for he, though author of many benefits to all mankind, devoting his life to a laborious quest of victory and honor, did indeed chastise those who wronged others, but was unable to punish Eurystheus, who was both his enemy and his oppressor. Whereas his sons, thanks to this city, saw on the same day both their own deliverance and the punishment of their enemies. [17]

Now in many ways it was natural to our ancestors, moved by a single resolve, to fight the battles of justice: for the very beginning of their life was just. They had not been collected, like most nations, from every quarter, and had not settled in a foreign land after driving out its people: they were born of the soil, and possessed in one and the same country their mother and their fatherland. [18] They were the first and the only people in that time to drive out the ruling classes5 of their state and to establish a democracy, believing the liberty of all to be the strongest bond of agreement; by sharing with each other the hopes born of their perils they had freedom of soul in, their civic life, [19] and used law for honoring the good and punishing the evil. For they deemed that it was the way of wild beasts to be held subject to one another by force, but the duty of men to delimit justice by law, to convince by reason, and to serve these two in act by submitting to the sovereignty of law and the instruction of reason. [20]

For indeed, being of noble stock and having minds as noble, the ancestors of those who lie here achieved many noble and admirable things; but ever memorable and mighty are the trophies that their descendants have everywhere left behind them owing to their valor. For they alone risked their all in defending the whole of Greece against many myriads of the barbarians. [21] For the King of Asia, not content with the wealth that he had already, but hoping to enslave Europe as well, dispatched an army of five hundred thousand. These, supposing that, if they obtained the willing friendship of this city or overwhelmed its resistance, they would easily dominate the rest of the Greeks, landed at Marathon, thinking that we should be most destitute of allies if they made their venture at a moment when Greece was in dissension as to the best means of repelling the invaders. [22] Besides, from the former actions of our city they had conceived a particular opinion of her: they thought that if they attacked another city first, they would be at war with it and Athens as well, for she would be zealous in coming to succor her injured neighbors; but if they made their way here first, no Greeks elsewhere would dare attempt the deliverance of others, and for their sake incur the open hostility of the foreigners. [23] These, then, were the motives of the foe. But our ancestors, without stopping to calculate the hazards of the war, but holding that a glorious death leaves behind it a deathless account of deeds well done, had no fear of the multitude of their adversaries, but rather had confidence in their own valor. And feeling ashamed that the barbarians were in their country, they did not wait till their allies should be informed and come to their support; rather than have to thank others for their salvation, they chose that the rest of the Greeks should have to thank them. [24] With this one resolve in the minds of all, they marched to the encounter, though few against many: for death, in their opinion, was a thing for them to share with all men, but prowess with a few; and while they possessed their lives, because of mortality, as alien things, they would leave behind something of their own in the memory attached to their perils. And they deemed that a victory which they could not win alone would be as impossible with the aid of their allies. If vanquished, they would perish a little before the others; if victorious, they would liberate the others with themselves. [25] They proved their worth as men, neither sparing their limbs nor cherishing their lives when valor called, and had more reverence for their city's laws than fear of their perils in face of the enemy; and so in their own land they set up on behalf of Greece a trophy of victory over the barbarians, who had invaded others' territory for money, [26] past the frontiers of their land; and so swiftly did they surmount their ordeal that by the same messengers information reached the other Greeks both of the barbarians' arrival here and of our ancestors' triumph. For indeed none of the other Greeks knew fear for the peril to come; they only heard the news and rejoiced over their own liberation. No wonder, then, that these deeds performed long ago should be as though they were new, and that even to this day the valor of that band should be envied by all mankind. [27]

Thereafter Xerxes, King of Asia, who had held Greece in contempt, but had been deceived in his hopes, who was dishonored by the event, galled by the disaster, and angered against its authors, and who was unused to ill-hap and unacquainted with true men, in ten years' time prepared for war and came with twelve hundred ships; and the land army that he brought was so immense in numbers that to enumerate even the nations that followed in his train would be a lengthy task. [28] But the surest evidence of their numbers is this: although he had a thousand ships to spare for transporting his land army over the most narrow part of the Hellespont, he decided against it, for he judged that it would cause him a great waste of time: [29] despising alike the effects of nature, the dispositions of Heaven and the purposes of men, he made him a road across the sea, and forced a passage for ships through the land, by spanning the Hellespont and trenching Athos; none withstood him, for the unwilling submitted, and the willing chose to be traitors. The former were not capable of resisting, and the latter were corrupted by bribes: they were under the double persuasion of gain and dread. [30] But while Greece showed these inclinations, the Athenians, for their part, embarked in their ships and hastened to the defence of Artemisium; while the Lacedaemonians and some of their allies went off to make a stand at Thermopylae, judging that the narrowness of the ground would enable them to secure the passage. [31] The trial came for both at the sane time: the Athenians conquered in the sea-fight, while the Lacedaemonians, showing no failure of spirit, but deceived as to the numbers alike of those whom they expected to mount guard and of those with whom they had to contend, were destroyed, not having been worsted by their adversaries, but slain where they had been stationed for battle. [32] When in this manner the one side had suffered disaster, and the other had captured the passage, the invaders advanced against this city; while our ancestors, informed of the calamity that had befallen the Lacedaemonians, and perplexed by the difficulties that surrounded them, were aware that, if they marched out to meet the barbarians on land, they would sail against the city with a thousand ships and take it undefended, and if they embarked on their war-vessels they would be reduced by the land army; that they6 would be unequal to the double strain of repelling the foe and leaving behind a sufficient garrison. [33] So having to choose one of two courses, either to desert their native land or to join the barbarians in enslaving the Greeks, they decided to prefer freedom together with valor and poverty and exile to their country's servitude in infamy and wealth: they left their city for the sake of Greece, that they might challenge each of the two forces7 in turn, not both at once. [34] They deposited their children and wives and mothers safe in Salamis, and assembled to their aid the ships of their allies. A few days later both the land army and the fleet of the barbarians appeared; at such a sight, who would not have been afraid of the greatness and terror of the danger that had come upon our city in her struggle for the freedom of Greece? [35] What were the feelings of those who beheld their friends on board those ships, when their own salvation was as doubtful as the approaching contest; or again, of those who were about to do battle at sea for their dearest, for the prizes there in Salamis? [36] On every hand they were surrounded by such a multitude of foes that they reckoned it the least of their present troubles to anticipate their own death, but saw the greatest of disasters in the fate that they must expect to be dealt by the barbarians, if successful, to those whom they had transported from the city. [37] We may be sure that the perplexity of their case made them often grasp each other by the hand, and with reason bewail their plight; knowing their own ships to be few, and seeing those of the foe to be many; understanding that their city was now deserted, that their land was being ravaged and overrun by the barbarians, that the temples were being burnt, and that horrors of every kind were close upon them. [38] At the same moment they heard mingled battle hymns of Greek and barbarian, exhortations on either side, and shrieks of the perishing: the sea was full of corpses, there was clashing of many wrecks of friends' and foemen's vessels, and for a long time the sea-fight was evenly balanced; they seemed at one moment to have conquered and been saved, at another to have been defeated and destroyed. [39] Certainly the fear that was upon them must have made them believe that they saw many things which they saw not, and heard many that they did not hear. What supplications, what reminders of sacrifices, were not sent up to Heaven! What pity was felt for children, what yearning over wives, what compassion for fathers and mothers, in calculating the evils that would result from their ill success! [40] What deity would have denied them pity for such an awful danger? What man but would have shed tears? Who would not have marvelled at their daring? Beyond all compare did those men in their valor surpass all mankind, whether in their counsels or in the perils of that war; for they abandoned their city and embarked on their ships, and pitted their own few lives against the multitude of Asia. [41] They declared to all men, by their victory in the sea-fight, that there is better hope for the venture shared with a few in the cause of freedom than for that in which numerous subjects of a king contend for their own servitude. [42] They made the fullest and fairest contribution in aid of the freedom of the Greeks by providing Themistocles as commander, most competent to speak and decide and act, and ships more numerous than those of all their allies, and men of the greatest experience. For indeed who among the rest of the Greeks could have vied with these in decision, in number, and in valor? [43] Hence it was just that they should receive from Greece without dispute the prize of prowess in the sea-fight, and reasonable that they should attain a prosperity in accord with the measure of their perils, having taught the barbarians of Asia that their own valor was genuine and native to their soil. [44]

By thus proving their quality in the sea-fight, and bearing by far the greatest share in its dangers, they obtained through their particular prowess a general access of freedom for the rest of Greece. But after this the Peloponnesians built a wall across the Isthmus; and being satisfied with their safety, and considering that they were now rid of the peril from the sea, they were disposed to stand by and see the other Greeks subdued by the barbarians. [45] Then the Athenians, in anger, advised them, if they meant to be of this mind, to encompass the whole Peloponnese with a wall: for if they themselves, betrayed by the Greeks, should be united with the barbarians, these on their part would have no need of a thousand ships, nor would the wall at the Isthmus help its builders, since the empire of the sea would belong without hazard to the King. [46] Taking the lesson to heart, and deeming their action unjust and ill advised, while the words of the Athenians were just and their recommendation was the wisest, they went to their support at Plataea. Most of the allies had deserted their posts at nightfall, owing to the multitude of the enemy; but the Lacedaemonians and Tegeates routed the barbarians, while the Athenians and Plataeans fought and vanquished all the Greeks who had despaired of freedom and submitted to slavery. [47] On that day they brought the ventures of the past to a most glorious consummation; for not only did they secure a permanence of freedom for Europe, but had given proof of their own valor in all those trials, whether alone or with others, in land-fights or in sea-fights, against the barbarians or against the Greeks; and thus they were judged worthy by all—by their comrades in peril no less than their foes in the field—to have the leadership of Greece. [48]

In later times a Grecian war arose from envy of what had come to pass, and jealousy of what had been achieved: great was the conceit of all, and small the allegation that each found needful. The Athenians, in a sea-fight with the Aeginetans and their allies, took seventy of their warships. [49] As they were blockading Egypt and Aegina at the same time, and their men of serviceable age were absent either in their ships or in their land army, the Corinthians and their allies, conceiving that if they invaded our land they would either find it unprotected or draw off our forces from Aegina, marched out in full strength and seized Geranea.8 [50] But the Athenians, though their men were away and the enemy close at hand, would not deign to summon anyone. Trusting in their own spirit, and despising the invaders, the elderly and those below the age of service thought fit to take the risk upon themselves alone; the former had acquired their valor by experience, the latter by nature; [51] those had proved their own worth on many a field,while these would imitate them, and as the seniors knew how to command, so the juniors were able to carry out their orders. [52] With Myronides as general they made a sally of their own into the land of Megara and conquered in battle the whole force of the enemy with troops whose strength was already failing or not yet capable,—of an enemy who had chosen to invade their country, but whom they had hastened to meet on alien soil. [53] There they set up a trophy of an exploit most glorious for them, but most disgraceful for the foe. One part of them had ceased, and the other had not begun, to be able-bodied; but together they took strength from their spirit, and thus with fairest renown they returned to their own land, where the young resumed their education and the old took counsel on what remained to be done. [54]

Now it is not easy for one person to recount in detail the perils undergone by many men, or to show forth in a single day the deeds of all past times. For what speech or time or orator would suffice to declare the valor of the men who lie here? [55] By means of countless toils, conspicuous struggles, and glorious perils they made Greece free, while proving the supremacy of their native land: they commanded the sea for seventy years9 and saved their allies from faction, [56] not suffering the many to be slaves of the few, but compelling all to live on an equality10; instead of weakening their allies, they secured their strength along with their own, and displayed their own power to such effect that the Great King no more coveted the possessions of others, but yielded some of his own and was in fear for what remained. [57] In that time no warships sailed from Asia, no despot held sway among the Greeks, no city of Greece was forced into serfdom by the barbarians; so great was the restraint and awe inspired in all mankind by the valor of our people. And for this reason none but they should become protectors of the Greeks and leaders of the cities. [58]

And in misfortunes also they displayed their accustomed valor. For when the ships were destroyed in the Hellespont11—whether it was through the fault of the commander or by the design of Heaven—and that supreme disaster overtook not only us, who suffered that misfortune, but all the rest of the Greeks, it became evident shortly after that the power of our city was the salvation of Greece. [59] The leadership was taken by others, and a people who had never before embarked upon the sea defeated the Greeks in a naval action; they sailed to Europe and enslaved cities of the Greeks, in which despots were established, some after our disaster, and others after the victory of the barbarians.12 [60] So it would have been fitting for Greece to come then and mourn over this tomb, and lament those who lie here, seeing that her own freedom was interred together with their valor. Unhappy Greece, to be bereft of such men, and happy King of Asia, to be at grips with other leaders! For Greece, deprived of these men, is sunk in slavery, while he, finding others in command, is moved to emulate the designs of his ancestors. [61]

But though I have been led to utter this lament over Greece as a whole, it behoves us to remember, in public as in private, those men13 who, shunning slavery, fighting for the right, and rallying to the cause of democracy, incurred the hostility of all and returned to the Peiraeus; compelled by no law, but induced by their nature; imitating in fresh encounters the ancient valor of their ancestors; [62] ready to purchase with their own lives a common share in the city for the rest; choosing death with freedom rather than life with slavery; no less ashamed of their disasters than angered against the enemy; preferring to die in their own land rather than live to dwell in that of others; and having as allies their oaths and covenants, and as enemies their open foes of aforetime and their own fellow citizens. [63] Nevertheless, having felt no fear of the multitude of their opponents, and having exposed their own persons to the peril, they set up a trophy over their enemies, and now find witnesses to their valor, close to this monument, in the tombs of the Lacedaemonians14 For we know that they restored in the sight of the world the diminished greatness of our city, revived in her the harmony that had been shattered by faction, and rebuilt walls in place of those that had been demolished. [64] The men who finally returned, showing the kinship of their counsels with the deeds of those who lie here, applied themselves, not to vengeance upon their enemies, but to the preservation of the city; and being men who at once could not be overreached and would not seek their own advantage, they shared their own freedom even with those who wished to be slaves, and declined for themselves a share in that slavery. [65] By the conspicuous greatness and nobility of their conduct they justified the claim that the former disasters of the city were due to no remissness of theirs, nor to the valor of the enemy; for if they proved able, after internal dissensions and despite the presence of the Peloponnesians and their other enemies, to return to their own place, unanimity would clearly have made it an easy matter for them to make war on their foes. [66]

Thus the struggles at the Peiraeus have earned for those men the envy of all mankind. But it is right that we should also praise the strangers who lie here: they came to the support of the people, and fought for our salvation; they regarded valor as their native land,15 and with this noble end they closed their lives. In return the city has not only mourned them but given them a public funeral, and has granted them in perpetuity the same honors as it gives to its own people. [67]

The men who are being buried today went to support the Corinthians, who were wronged by ancient friends, while they were but new allies; they did not act in the same spirit as the Lacedaemonians （who envied the Corinthians their wealth, whereas our men pitied them for their wrongs, unmindful of their former enmity and regardful of their present friendship）, but showed forth their own valor in the sight of all men. [68] To enhance the greatness of Greece they had the courage, not merely to imperil themselves for their own preservation, but also to die for their enemies' freedom: for they fought the allies of the Lacedaemonians for the freedom of those allies. Had they conquered, they deemed their foes worthy of obtaining equal rights: in their misfortune they settled an inheritance of slavery on the peoples of the Peloponnese.16 [69]

Now in such a plight as theirs, life was miserable, death desirable. But these men, both in their life and after their death, are enviable; for they were first trained in the excellences of their ancestors, and then in manhood they preserved that ancient fame intact and displayed their own prowess. [70] For the benefits that they have conferred on their own native land are many and splendid; they restored the broken fortunes of others, and kept the war at a distance from their own country.17 They have closed their lives with a death that befits true men, for thus they repaid their native land for their nurture and bequeathed sorrow to those who reared them. [71] Hence it is meet that the living should yearn for these men, and bewail themselves, and pity their kindred for the life that lies before them. For what pleasure now remains for them, when such men as these are buried? These, prizing valor above all else, deprived themselves of life, widowed their wives, left their own children orphans, and brothers, fathers, mothers in a state of desolation. [72] Though their children have many troubles in store for them, I envy them because they are too young to know of what noble fathers they have been bereft: but I pity those whose sons they were, as being too old to forget their own misfortune. [73] For what woe could be more incurable than to bring forth and rear and bury one's own children, and then in old age to be disabled in body and, having lost every hope, to find oneself friendless and resourceless? to have the very cause of former envy turned now to a matter of pity, and to regard death as more desirable than life? For the more they excelled in manhood, the greater the grief to those who are left behind. [74] And how should they have surcease from their sorrow? In the city's disasters? But then, surely, the fallen will be remembered by everyone else as well. In the public successes? But it is cause enough for sorrow that after the death of their children the living should enjoy the fruits of their valor. In their private adversities? When they see their former friends deserting them in their destitution, and their enemies elated with the misfortunes of the fallen? [75] We have but one way, as it seems to me, of showing our gratitude to those who lie here: it is to hold their parents in the same high regard as they did, to be as affectionate to their children as though we were ourselves their fathers, and to give such support to their wives as they did while they lived. For whom could we be expected to honor in preference to those who lie here? [76] Whom amongst the living should we more justly hold in high regard than their relations, who were on an equality with us all in reaping the fruits of their valor, but now that they are dead bear alone the kinsmen's part in their misfortune? [77]

But in truth I do not know what need there is to lament so sadly: for we were quite aware that we were mortals. So why chafe now at the fate which we so long expected, or be so extremely distressed by the calamities of nature, when we know well that death is common to the basest and the noblest alike? [78] Death neither disdains the wicked nor admires the virtuous, but is even-handed with all. Were it possible for those who escaped the perils of war to be immortal for all time, there would be cause for the living to mourn the dead for evermore. But we see not only that our nature yields to sickness and old age, but that the spirit to whom has been allotted the charge of our fate is inexorable. [79]

Therefore it is fitting to consider those most happy who have closed their lives in risking them for the greatest and noblest ends; not committing their career to chance, nor awaiting the death that comes of itself, but selecting the fairest one of all. For I say their memory can never grow old, while their honor is every man's envy. [80] Of their nature it comes that they are mourned as mortal, of their valor that they are lauded as immortal. Thus you see them given a public funeral, and contests of strength and knowledge and wealth18 held at their tomb; because we think that those who have fallen in war are worthy of receiving the same honors as the immortals. [81] So I, indeed, call them blessed in their death, and envy them; I hold that for those alone amongst men is it worth while to be born who, having received mortal bodies, have left behind an immortal memory arising from their valor. Nevertheless, we must needs follow our ancient customs, and observe our ancestral law by bewailing those who are now being buried.

1 In Pontus, flowing into the Euxine.

2 King of Argos, and father-in-law of Polyneices, who went with him on the expedition against Thebes, the city of the Cadmeans, to claim the throne held there by Creon.

3 According to the usual story all the seven were slain.

4 The sons of Heracles （Heracleidae; cf. Euripides' play of this name） were protected by the Athenians against their father's oppressor, Eurystheus, king of Argos, before their conquest of the Peloponnese.

5 δυνασταία was a small ruling class or narrow oligarchy, opposed to a πολιτεία or constitutional rule; cf. Thuc. 3.62, Thuc. 4.78.

6 The Athenians left the city.

7 i.e., the fleet and the army of the Persians.

8 Near Megara.

9 From 476 B.C., when Athens became the head of the Delian League, to 405 B.C., when she was defeated at Aegospotami.

10 i.e., they were the general promoters of democracy.

11 At Aegospotami, 405 B.C.

12 The Persian fleet under Conon defeated the Lacedaemonians under Peisander at Cnidus in Cilicia, 394 B.C. In the preceding years Sparta, relying on the support of Persia, had placed her governors in many Greek cities: after Cnidus the Greeks of Asia Minor were abandoned to Persian rule.

13 The speaker returns to the story of Athens after Aegospotami—the tyranny of the Thirty and the democratic opposition in the Peiraeus, 404-403 B.C. For the whole series of events see the General Introduction and Chronological Summary.

14 Slain in a fight between the Athenian democrats and the Spartans under Pausanias.

15 As aliens, they were stirred by love of valor rather than patriotism.

16 The Athenian's object in these operations was to check the expansive policy of Sparta by striking at her allies in the Peloponnese. Corinth was the center of the struggle.

17 I.e., in the territory of Corinth.

18 Since about 450 B.C. the State funerals had become elaborate festivals: they were celebrated each year in October, and included athletic and musical competitions.olding that a glorious death leaves behind it a deathless account of deeds well done, had no fear of the multitude of their adversaries, but rather had confidence in their own valor. And feeling ashamed that the barbarians were in their country, they did not wait till their allies should be informed and come to their support; rather than have to thank others for their salvation, they chose that the rest of the Greeks should have to thank them. [24] With this one resolve in the minds of all, they marched to the encounter, though few against many: for death, in their opinion, was a thing for them to share with all men, but prowess with a few; and while they possessed their lives, because of mortality, as alien things, they would leave behind something of their own in the memory attached to their perils. And they deemed that a victory which they could not win alone would be as impossible with the aid of their allies. If vanquished, they would perish a little before the others; if victorious, they would liberate the others with themselves. [25] They proved their worth as men, neither sparing their limbs nor cherishing their lives when valor called, and had more reverence for their city's laws than fear of their perils in face of the enemy; and so in their own land they set up on behalf of Greece a trophy of victory over the barbarians, who had invaded others' territory for money, [26] past the frontiers of their land; and so swiftly did they surmount their ordeal that by the same messengers information reached the other Greeks both of the barbarians' arrival here and of our ancestors' triumph. For indeed none of the other Greeks knew fear for the peril to come; they only heard the news and rejoiced over their own liberation. No wonder, then, that these deeds performed long ago should be as though they were new, and that even to this day the valor of that band should be envied by all mankind. [27]

Thereafter Xerxes, King of Asia, who had held Greece in contempt, but had been deceived in his hopes, who was dishonored by the event, galled by the disaster, and angered against its authors, and who was unused to ill-hap and unacquainted with true men, in ten years' time prepared for war and came with twelve hundred ships; and the land army that he brought was so immense in numbers that to enumerate even the nations that followed in his train would be a lengthy task. [28] But the surest evidence of their numbers is this: although he had a thousand ships to spare for transporting his land army over the most narrow part of the Hellespont, he decided against it, for he judged that it would cause him a great waste of time: [29] despising alike the effects of nature, the dispositions of Heaven and the purposes of men, he made him a road across the sea, and forced a passage for ships through the land, by spanning the Hellespont and trenching Athos; none withstood him, for the unwilling submitted, and the willing chose to be traitors. The former were not capable of resisting, and the latter were corrupted by bribes: they were under the double persuasion of gain and dread. [30] But while Greece showed these inclinations, the Athenians, for their part, embarked in their ships and hastened to the defence of Artemisium; while the Lacedaemonians and some of their allies went off to make a stand at Thermopylae, judging that the narrowness of the ground would enable them to secure the passage. [31] The trial came for both at the sane time: the Athenians conquered in the sea-fight, while the Lacedaemonians, showing no failure of spirit, but deceived as to the numbers alike of those whom they expected to mount guard and of those with whom they had to contend, were destroyed, not having been worsted by their adversaries, but slain where they had been stationed for battle. [32] When in this manner the one side had suffered disaster, and the other had captured the passage, the invaders advanced against this city; while our ancestors, informed of the calamity that had befallen the Lacedaemonians, and perplexed by the difficulties that surrounded them, were aware that, if they marched out to meet the barbarians on land, they would sail against the city with a thousand ships and take it undefended, and if they embarked on their war-vessels they would be reduced by the land army; that they6 would be unequal to the double strain of repelling the foe and leaving behind a sufficient garrison. [33] So having to choose one of two courses, either to desert their native land or to join the barbarians in enslaving the Greeks, they decided to prefer freedom together with valor and poverty and exile to their country's servitude in infamy and wealth: they left their city for the sake of Greece, that they might challenge each of the two forces7 in turn, not both at once. [34] They deposited their children and wives and mothers safe in Salamis, and assembled to their aid the ships of their allies. A few days later both the land army and the fleet of the barbarians appeared; at such a sight, who would not have been afraid of the greatness and terror of the danger that had come upon our city in her struggle for the freedom of Greece? [35] What were the feelings of those who beheld their friends on board those ships, when their own salvation was as doubtful as the approaching contest; or again, of those who were about to do battle at sea for their dearest, for the prizes there in Salamis? [36] On every hand they were surrounded by such a multitude of foes that they reckoned it the least of their present troubles to anticipate their own death, but saw the greatest of disasters in the fate that they must expect to be dealt by the barbarians, if successful, to those whom they had transported from the city. [37] We may be sure that the perplexity of their case made them often grasp each other by the hand, and with reason bewail their plight; knowing their own ships to be few, and seeing those of the foe to be many; understanding that their city was now deserted, that their land was being ravaged and overrun by the barbarians, that the temples were being burnt, and that horrors of every kind were close upon them. [38] At the same moment they heard mingled battle hymns of Greek and barbarian, exhortations on either side, and shrieks of the perishing: the sea was full of corpses, there was clashing of many wrecks of friends' and foemen's vessels, and for a long time the sea-fight was evenly balanced; they seemed at one moment to have conquered and been saved, at another to have been defeated and destroyed. [39] Certainly the fear that was upon them must have made them believe that they saw many things which they saw not, and heard many that they did not hear. What supplications, what reminders of sacrifices, were not sent up to Heaven! What pity was felt for children, what yearning over wives, what compassion for fathers and mothers, in calculating the evils that would result from their ill success! [40] What deity would have denied them pity for such an awful danger? What man but would have shed tears? Who would not have marvelled at their daring? Beyond all compare did those men in their valor surpass all mankind, whether in their counsels or in the perils of that war; for they abandoned their city and embarked on their ships, and pitted their own few lives against the multitude of Asia. [41] They declared to all men, by their victory in the sea-fight, that there is better hope for the venture shared with a few in the cause of freedom than for that in which numerous subjects of a king contend for their own servitude. [42] They made the fullest and fairest contribution in aid of the freedom of the Greeks by providing Themistocles as commander, most competent to speak and decide and act, and ships more numerous than those of all their allies, and men of the greatest experience. For indeed who among the rest of the Greeks could have vied with these in decision, in number, and in valor? [43] Hence it was just that they should receive from Greece without dispute the prize of prowess in the sea-fight, and reasonable that they should attain a prosperity in accord with the measure of their perils, having taught the barbarians of Asia that their own valor was genuine and native to their soil. [44]

By thus proving their quality in the sea-fight, and bearing by far the greatest share in its dangers, they obtained through their particular prowess a general access of freedom for the rest of Greece. But after this the Peloponnesians built a wall across the Isthmus; and being satisfied with their safety, and considering that they were now rid of the peril from the sea, they were disposed to stand by and see the other Greeks subdued by the barbarians. [45] Then the Athenians, in anger, advised them, if they meant to be of this mind, to encompass the whole Peloponnese with a wall: for if they themselves, betrayed by the Greeks, should be united with the barbarians, these on their part would have no need of a thousand ships, nor would the wall at the Isthmus help its builders, since the empire of the sea would belong without hazard to the King. [46] Taking the lesson to heart, and deeming their action unjust and ill advised, while the words of the Athenians were just and their recommendation was the wisest, they went to their support at Plataea. Most of the allies had deserted their posts at nightfall, owing to the multitude of the enemy; but the Lacedaemonians and Tegeates routed the barbarians, while the Athenians and Plataeans fought and vanquished all the Greeks who had despaired of freedom and submitted to slavery. [47] On that day they brought the ventures of the past to a most glorious consummation; for not only did they secure a permanence of freedom for Europe, but had given proof of their own valor in all those trials, whether alone or with others, in land-fights or in sea-fights, against the barbarians or against the Greeks; and thus they were judged worthy by all—by their comrades in peril no less than their foes in the field—to have the leadership of Greece. [48]

In later times a Grecian war arose from envy of what had come to pass, and jealousy of what had been achieved: great was the conceit of all, and small the allegation that each found needful. The Athenians, in a sea-fight with the Aeginetans and their allies, took seventy of their warships. [49] As they were blockading Egypt and Aegina at the same time, and their men of serviceable age were absent either in their ships or in their land army, the Corinthians and their allies, conceiving that if they invaded our land they would either find it unprotected or draw off our forces from Aegina, marched out in full strength and seized Geranea.8 [50] But the Athenians, though their men were away and the enemy close at hand, would not deign to summon anyone. Trusting in their own spirit, and despising the invaders, the elderly and those below the age of service thought fit to take the risk upon themselves alone; the former had acquired their valor by experience, the latter by nature; [51] those had proved their own worth on many a field,while these would imitate them, and as the seniors knew how to command, so the juniors were able to carry out their orders. [52] With Myronides as general they made a sally of their own into the land of Megara and conquered in battle the whole force of the enemy with troops whose strength was already failing or not yet capable,—of an enemy who had chosen to invade their country, but whom they had hastened to meet on alien soil. [53] There they set up a trophy of an exploit most glorious for them, but most disgraceful for the foe. One part of them had ceased, and the other had not begun, to be able-bodied; but together they took strength from their spirit, and thus with fairest renown they returned to their own land, where the young resumed their education and the old took counsel on what remained to be done. [54]

Now it is not easy for one person to recount in detail the perils undergone by many men, or to show forth in a single day the deeds of all past times. For what speech or time or orator would suffice to declare the valor of the men who lie here? [55] By means of countless toils, conspicuous struggles, and glorious perils they made Greece free, while proving the supremacy of their native land: they commanded the sea for seventy years9 and saved their allies from faction, [56] not suffering the many to be slaves of the few, but compelling all to live on an equality10; instead of weakening their allies, they secured their strength along with their own, and displayed their own power to such effect that the Great King no more coveted the possessions of others, but yielded some of his own and was in fear for what remained. [57] In that time no warships sailed from Asia, no despot held sway among the Greeks, no city of Greece was forced into serfdom by the barbarians; so great was the restraint and awe inspired in all mankind by the valor of our people. And for this reason none but they should become protectors of the Greeks and leaders of the cities. [58]

And in misfortunes also they displayed their accustomed valor. For when the ships were destroyed in the Hellespont11—whether it was through the fault of the commander or by the design of Heaven—and that supreme disaster overtook not only us, who suffered that misfortune, but all the rest of the Greeks, it became evident shortly after that the power of our city was the salvation of Greece. [59] The leadership was taken by others, and a people who had never before embarked upon the sea defeated the Greeks in a naval action; they sailed to Europe and enslaved cities of the Greeks, in which despots were established, some after our disaster, and others after the victory of the barbarians.12 [60] So it would have been fitting for Greece to come then and mourn over this tomb, and lament those who lie here, seeing that her own freedom was interred together with their valor. Unhappy Greece, to be bereft of such men, and happy King of Asia, to be at grips with other leaders! For Greece, deprived of these men, is sunk in slavery, while he, finding others in command, is moved to emulate the designs of his ancestors. [61]

But though I have been led to utter this lament over Greece as a whole, it behoves us to remember, in public as in private, those men13 who, shunning slavery, fighting for the right, and rallying to the cause of democracy, incurred the hostility of all and returned to the Peiraeus; compelled by no law, but induced by their nature; imitating in fresh encounters the ancient valor of their ancestors; [62] ready to purchase with their own lives a common share in the city for the rest; choosing death with freedom rather than life with slavery; no less ashamed of their disasters than angered against the enemy; preferring to die in their own land rather than live to dwell in that of others; and having as allies their oaths and covenants, and as enemies their open foes of aforetime and their own fellow citizens. [63] Nevertheless, having felt no fear of the multitude of their opponents, and having exposed their own persons to the peril, they set up a trophy over their enemies, and now find witnesses to their valor, close to this monument, in the tombs of the Lacedaemonians14 For we know that they restored in the sight of the world the diminished greatness of our city, revived in her the harmony that had been shattered by faction, and rebuilt walls in place of those that had been demolished. [64] The men who finally returned, showing the kinship of their counsels with the deeds of those who lie here, applied themselves, not to vengeance upon their enemies, but to the preservation of the city; and being men who at once could not be overreached and would not seek their own advantage, they shared their own freedom even with those who wished to be slaves, and declined for themselves a share in that slavery. [65] By the conspicuous greatness and nobility of their conduct they justified the claim that the former disasters of the city were due to no remissness of theirs, nor to the valor of the enemy; for if they proved able, after internal dissensions and despite the presence of the Peloponnesians and their other enemies, to return to their own place, unanimity would clearly have made it an easy matter for them to make war on their foes. [66]

Thus the struggles at the Peiraeus have earned for those men the envy of all mankind. But it is right that we should also praise the strangers who lie here: they came to the support of the people, and fought for our salvation; they regarded valor as their native land,15 and with this noble end they closed their lives. In return the city has not only mourned them but given them a public funeral, and has granted them in perpetuity the same honors as it gives to its own people. [67]

The men who are being buried today went to support the Corinthians, who were wronged by ancient friends, while they were but new allies; they did not act in the same spirit as the Lacedaemonians （who envied the Corinthians their wealth, whereas our men pitied them for their wrongs, unmindful of their former enmity and regardful of their present friendship）, but showed forth their own valor in the sight of all men. [68] To enhance the greatness of Greece they had the courage, not merely to imperil themselves for their own preservation, but also to die for their enemies' freedom: for they fought the allies of the Lacedaemonians for the freedom of those allies. Had they conquered, they deemed their foes worthy of obtaining equal rights: in their misfortune they settled an inheritance of slavery on the peoples of the Peloponnese.16 [69]

Now in such a plight as theirs, life was miserable, death desirable. But these men, both in their life and after their death, are enviable; for they were first trained in the excellences of their ancestors, and then in manhood they preserved that ancient fame intact and displayed their own prowess. [70] For the benefits that they have conferred on their own native land are many and splendid; they restored the broken fortunes of others, and kept the war at a distance from their own country.17 They have closed their lives with a death that befits true men, for thus they repaid their native land for their nurture and bequeathed sorrow to those who reared them. [71] Hence it is meet that the living should yearn for these men, and bewail themselves, and pity their kindred for the life that lies before them. For what pleasure now remains for them, when such men as these are buried? These, prizing valor above all else, deprived themselves of life, widowed their wives, left their own children orphans, and brothers, fathers, mothers in a state of desolation. [72] Though their children have many troubles in store for them, I envy them because they are too young to know of what noble fathers they have been bereft: but I pity those whose sons they were, as being too old to forget their own misfortune. [73] For what woe could be more incurable than to bring forth and rear and bury one's own children, and then in old age to be disabled in body and, having lost every hope, to find oneself friendless and resourceless? to have the very cause of former envy turned now to a matter of pity, and to regard death as more desirable than life? For the more they excelled in manhood, the greater the grief to those who are left behind. [74] And how should they have surcease from their sorrow? In the city's disasters? But then, surely, the fallen will be remembered by everyone else as well. In the public successes? But it is cause enough for sorrow that after the death of their children the living should enjoy the fruits of their valor. In their private adversities? When they see their former friends deserting them in their destitution, and their enemies elated with the misfortunes of the fallen? [75] We have but one way, as it seems to me, of showing our gratitude to those who lie here: it is to hold their parents in the same high regard as they did, to be as affectionate to their children as though we were ourselves their fathers, and to give such support to their wives as they did while they lived. For whom could we be expected to honor in preference to those who lie here? [76] Whom amongst the living should we more justly hold in high regard than their relations, who were on an equality with us all in reaping the fruits of their valor, but now that they are dead bear alone the kinsmen's part in their misfortune? [77]

But in truth I do not know what need there is to lament so sadly: for we were quite aware that we were mortals. So why chafe now at the fate which we so long expected, or be so extremely distressed by the calamities of nature, when we know well that death is common to the basest and the noblest alike? [78] Death neither disdains the wicked nor admires the virtuous, but is even-handed with all. Were it possible for those who escaped the perils of war to be immortal for all time, there would be cause for the living to mourn the dead for evermore. But we see not only that our nature yields to sickness and old age, but that the spirit to whom has been allotted the charge of our fate is inexorable. [79]

Therefore it is fitting to consider those most happy who have closed their lives in risking them for the greatest and noblest ends; not committing their career to chance, nor awaiting the death that comes of itself, but selecting the fairest one of all. For I say their memory can never grow old, while their honor is every man's envy. [80] Of their nature it comes that they are mourned as mortal, of their valor that they are lauded as immortal. Thus you see them given a public funeral, and contests of strength and knowledge and wealth18 held at their tomb; because we think that those who have fallen in war are worthy of receiving the same honors as the immortals. [81] So I, indeed, call them blessed in their death, and envy them; I hold that for those alone amongst men is it worth while to be born who, having received mortal bodies, have left behind an immortal memory arising from their valor. Nevertheless, we must needs follow our ancient customs, and observe our ancestral law by bewailing those who are now being buried.

1 In Pontus, flowing into the Euxine.

2 King of Argos, and father-in-law of Polyneices, who went with him on the expedition against Thebes, the city of the Cadmeans, to claim the throne held there by Creon.

3 According to the usual story all the seven were slain.

4 The sons of Heracles （Heracleidae; cf. Euripides' play of this name） were protected by the Athenians against their father's oppressor, Eurystheus, king of Argos, before their conquest of the Peloponnese.

5 δυνασταία was a small ruling class or narrow oligarchy, opposed to a πολιτεία or constitutional rule; cf. Thuc. 3.62, Thuc. 4.78.

6 The Athenians left the city.

7 i.e., the fleet and the army of the Persians.

8 Near Megara.

9 From 476 B.C., when Athens became the head of the Delian League, to 405 B.C., when she was defeated at Aegospotami.

10 i.e., they were the general promoters of democracy.

11 At Aegospotami, 405 B.C.

12 The Persian fleet under Conon defeated the Lacedaemonians under Peisander at Cnidus in Cilicia, 394 B.C. In the preceding years Sparta, relying on the support of Persia, had placed her governors in many Greek cities: after Cnidus the Greeks of Asia Minor were abandoned to Persian rule.

13 The speaker returns to the story of Athens after Aegospotami—the tyranny of the Thirty and the democratic opposition in the Peiraeus, 404-403 B.C. For the whole series of events see the General Introduction and Chronological Summary.

14 Slain in a fight between the Athenian democrats and the Spartans under Pausanias.

15 As aliens, they were stirred by love of valor rather than patriotism.

16 The Athenian's object in these operations was to check the expansive policy of Sparta by striking at her allies in the Peloponnese. Corinth was the center of the struggle.

17 I.e., in the territory of Corinth.

18 Since about 450 B.C. the State funerals had become elaborate festivals: they were celebrated each year in October, and included athletic and musical competitions.

Although I was aware of much that was outrageous about Simon, gentlemen of the Council, I did not believe that he would ever have carried audacity to the pitch of lodging a complaint as the injured party to a case where he was the person who should be punished, and of taking that great and solemn affidavit1 and so coming before you. [2] Now if it were any other court that was to make a decision upon me, I should be terrified by the danger, considering what strange machinations and chances occur at times to cause a variety of surprises to those who are standing their trial: but as it is before you that I appear, I hope to obtain justice. [3] What especially vexes me, gentlemen, is that I shall be compelled to speak to you of the facts of this case: for it was my feeling of shame at the mere thought of these becoming widely known that made me put up with my wrongs. But since Simon has placed me in such a necessity, I will relate to you the whole of the facts without the slightest reserve. [4] If I am guilty, gentlemen, I expect to get no indulgence; but if I prove my innocence as regards the counts of Simon's affidavit, while for the rest you consider my attitude towards the boy too senseless for a man of my age, I ask you not to think the worse of me for that, since you know that all mankind are liable to desire, but that he may be the best and most temperate who is able to bear its misfortunes in the most orderly spirit. All my efforts in this way have been thwarted by the plaintiff Simon, as I shall make clear to you. [5]

We felt desire, gentlemen, for Theodotus, a Plataean boy; and while I looked to win his affection by kindness, this man thought by outrage and defiance of the law to compel him to accede to his wishes. To tell all the ill-treatment that the boy has suffered from him would be a lengthy business: but I think it proper that you should hear the numerous offences he has committed against myself. [6] Hearing that the boy was at my house, he came there at night in a drunken state, broke down the doors, and entered the women's rooms: within were my sister and my nieces, whose lives have been so well-ordered that they are ashamed to be seen even by their kinsmen2. [7] This man, then, carried insolence to such a pitch that he refused to go away until the people who appeared on the spot, and those who had accompanied him, feeling it a monstrous thing that he should intrude on young girls and orphans, drove him out by force. Far from repenting of his outrageous proceedings, he found out where we were dining, and acted in the strangest, the most incredible manner, as it might seem to those unacquainted with his madness. [8] He called me out of doors, and, as soon as I went outside, made an immediate attempt to strike me. When I beat him off, he stood out of reach and began pelting me with stones. He missed me, but Aristocritus, who had accompanied him to my house, was struck by a stone which broke his forehead. [9] So I, gentlemen, feeling myself grossly ill-used, but ashamed—as I have already told you before—at my misfortune, put up with it, and preferred to go without satisfaction for the offences rather than be thought lacking in sense by the citizens: for I knew that, while his actions would be found appropriate to his wickedness, I should be derided for the treatment I received by a number of people who are in the habit of resenting my ambition that one may show for a good standing in the city. [10] I was so perplexed, gentlemen, in face of this man's lawless behavior, that I decided that it would be best for me to reside abroad. So I took the boy （since the whole truth must be told）, and left the city. When I thought it was time enough for Simon to have forgotten the young fellow, and also to have repented of his former offences, I came back again. [11] I betook myself to the Peiraeus; but this man,observing immediately that Theodotus had arrived and was staying with Lysimachus,—who lived hard by the house that this man had rented—invited some of his friends to join him: they all had luncheon and drank, and they posted watchers on the roof so that,when the boy should come out, they might seize upon him. [12] At this moment I arrived from the Peiraeus, and in passing I turned into Lysimachus's house: after spending some little time there, we came out. Then those people, already drunk, sprang out upon us; some of his party refused to join in his criminal action, but Simon here, and Theophilus, Protarchus and Autocles began dragging the boy along. He, however, flung off his cloak and ran away. [13] Then I, expecting that he would make good his escape, while they, if they met anybody, would at once turn aside from a feeling of shame,— with this conclusion I took myself off by another street; so careful I was to give them a wide berth, for I regarded all the proceedings of these men as a grievous misfortune to myself. [14] Thus, on the spot where Simon says that the fight occurred, nobody on either their or my side had his head broken or received any other hurt: as witnesses to all this I will produce to you the persons who were then present.“Witnesses” [15]

That this man, then, was the wrongdoer, gentlemen, and that he had designs on us, and not I on him, has been testified to you by those who were then present. After this the boy took refuge in a fuller's shop; but these men dashed in after him and laid violent hands on him, while he shouted and cried out and called the bystanders to witness. [16] A crowd of people came running up, and protested against their action, which they declared a monstrous proceeding: these men gave no heed to anything that was said, but gave a severe beating to Molon the fuller and some others who were endeavoring to protect the lad. [17] They had already got as far as Lampon's when I, walking by myself, met with them; and considering it a monstrous and shameful thing to stand by and see the young fellow subjected to such lawless and violent outrage, I seized hold of him. They, when asked why they were treating him in such lawless fashion, refused to answer, but letting the young fellow go they began to beat me. [18] A battle ensued, gentlemen; the boy was pelting them and defending his person, while they were pelting us; they also, in their do.drunkenness, were beating him and I was defending myself, and the others present were all supporting. us, as being the injured party; and in this brawl we all of us got our heads broken. [19] The others whom Simon had led into this drunken assault, at their first sight of me after the affair begged my pardon, as men who, so far from suffering injury, had acted in a monstrous way; and though since that time four years have elapsed, nobody has ever brought any charge against me. [20] Simon here, who was the author of all the trouble, kept quiet for some time, in fear for himself; but when he became aware that I had failed in a private suit on a challenge to an exchange of property,3 he conceived a contempt for me and, with the audacity that you now see, has involved me in this serious prosecution. Now, as witnesses to show that here too I am speaking the truth, I will produce to you the persons who were present on the occasion.“Witnesses” [21]

So now you have heard from the witnesses as well as myself the story of what took place; and I could wish, gentlemen, that Simon had the same intentions as I, so that after hearing the truth from us both you might have arrived with ease at the just decision. But since he cares nothing for the oaths that he has sworn, I will try also to inform you concerning the lies that he has told. [22] He had the audacity to state that on his part he had given three hundred drachmae to Theodotus, under an agreement made with him, and that I by intrigue seduced the boy from him. And yet, if this was true, it was for him to summon as many witnesses as he could and pursue the matter in accordance with our laws. [23] But it does not appear that he has ever done anything of the sort, but only that he has outraged and beaten us both, and has revelled and broken in doors and intruded on free women by night. [24] You ought to take all this, gentlemen, as primary proof that he is lying to you. And then, consider how incredible his statements are. He has valued his property altogether at two hundred and fifty drachmae: yet how surprising that he should hire his companion for more than he himself in fact possesses! [25] And he has carried audacity to such lengths that it does not suffice him merely to lie about this matter of having given the money, but he even says that he has recovered it! Yet how is it likely that I first committed such a crime as he has laid to my charge—of seeking to deprive him of his three hundred dracmae4— and then, after we had had our affray, paid him back the money, without either obtaining a quittance of all claims or being subjected to any compulsion? [26] Why, gentlemen, this is all mere invention and artifice of his: he says that he gave it, so as to avoid the scandal of daring to commit such an outrage on the lad without any bargain struck between them; and he pretends that he has got it back, because it is clear that he never laid a claim to money or made the least mention of the matter.5 [27]

He says that I gave him a beating at the door of his house, which left him in a terrible state. But we find that he pursued the boy for more than four stades6 from his house with no sign of injury, and I this he denies, although it was seen by more than two hundred people. [28]

He states that we went to his house with potsherds in our hands, and that I threatened to kill him, and that this is premeditation. But I think that this lie of his, gentlemen, is easily detected, not only by you who are used to investigating this sort of case, but by everyone else as well. [29] For who can find it credible that by a premeditated manoeuvre I went to Simon's house after daybreak with the boy, when so many people had gathered about him, unless I had become so utterly insane as to be eager to fight them all single— handed; especially when I knew that he would have been delighted to see me at his door,—he who in fact kept coming to my house, and entered it by force, and, disregarding both my sister and my nieces, had the audacity to seek me out, and having discovered where I happened to be dining called me out and beat me? [30] And so, as it seems, I, who at first, to avoid notoriety, kept quiet, taking this man's wickedness to be so much misfortune to myself, was yet after a lapse of time, as he says, converted to a desire for notoriety! [31] Now if the boy had been living with him, there could be some show of reason in his lie that I was driven by my desire to an act of quite improbable folly: but the fact is that the boy would not even talk to him, but hated him more than anyone in the world, and was actually living with me. [32]

So who of you can believe that I previously left the city on a voyage with the boy to avoid a fight with this man, and then, when I had got back, I took him to Simon's house, where I was to expect most embarrassment? [33] And though I had designs on him, I came utterly unprepared, without calling to my aid either friends or servants or anybody at all, save only this child, who would have been unable to support me, but was capable of giving information under torture7 upon any crime that I might commit! [34] But such was the depth of my stupidity that, having my design against Simon, I did not look out for him where he might be caught alone, whether by night or by day, but went to the place where I should find most people to see me and cut me to pieces, as though I were contriving my premeditation against myself, with a view to getting the utmost amount of outrage from my enemies! [35]

And besides, gentlemen, from the very fight that took place you can easily perceive that he lies. When the boy saw what was on hand, he flung off his cloak and ran away: these men pursued him, while I took myself off by another street. [36] Now which party should be held responsible for such affairs, those who flee, or those who seek to capture? In my opinion it is obvious to all that those flee who are in fear for themselves, and those pursue who mean to do some hurt. [37] And this is not a case of a probable thing having turned out otherwise in fact: no, they caught the boy and were dragging him by force out of his way, when I met them, and without touching these men I took hold of the boy; whereas they not only dragged him by force, but also beat me. All this has been testified to you by those who were present. So it will be extraordinary if I am held to have premeditated any of those things wherein these men are found to have so monstrously transgressed the laws. [38]

How, pray, should I have been treated, if the case I were the opposite of what has now occurred; if I, with a number of my associates had gone to meet Simon, and fought with him, beaten him, pursued and caught him, and then tried to drag him by force, if, as it is, and when it is he who has done all these things, I have been subjected to proceedings like the present, in which I risk the loss of both my native land and all the property that I possess? [39] But here is the strongest and most striking proof of all: the man who was wronged and victimized by me—as he says—did not dare for four years to denounce me before you. Everyone else, when in love, and deprived of the object of desire, and battered with blows, immediately in his anger seeks redress; but this man seeks it long afterwards. [40]

So, gentlemen, that I am not to blame for any of these occurrences has, I conceive, been sufficiently proved. And observe the spirit in which I treat quarrels arising from this sort of affair: although I had suffered a variety of outrages at Simon's hands, and had even had my head broken by him, I could not bring myself to denounce him, as I felt it extravagant, just because of a mutual rivalry over a child, to press for a man's expulsion from his native land. [41] Besides, I did not see that there was any premeditation of wounding in the case of a man who gave a wound without meaning to kill. For who is so simple as to premeditate a long time ahead how some enemy of his shall come by a wound? [42] Why, it is clear that even the makers of our laws did not think well, when people happened in a fight to break each other's heads, to make it a case for banishment from their country; else they would have exiled a goodly number. But in the case of any persons who, designing to kill, wounded others without being able to kill them, they appointed the punishment in that degree of severity, judging it meet that where they had shown design and premeditation they should pay the penalty: though if they might not have succeeded, none the less their best efforts had been exerted.8 [43] And in this way you have decided, many a time in the past, on this point of premeditation. Extraordinary, indeed, it would be, if in all cases of wounds received through some drunken rivalry, or game, or abuse, or in a fight for a mistress,—affairs of which everyone repents on better consideration,—you are to inflict a punishment of such awful severity as that of expelling any of our citizens from their native land. [44]

I wonder most of all at this man's temperament. For it does not seem to me that the same person can be both a lover and a slanderer, since the former implies the simpler sort of man, and the latter the most villainous. I could wish that I were allowed to expose this man's wickedness before you in all its other effects, so that you might understand how in justice he ought far rather to be on trial for his life than bringing others into peril of losing their native land. [45] I will, however, pass over all those things, and will mention not one which I consider you ought to hear, as being a sure proof of his brazen-faced audacity. In Corinth, where he arrived after our battle with the enemy and the expedition to Coronea9 he fought with the taxiarch10 Laches and gave him a beating; and when the citizens had set forth in full military strength, he was specially noted for insubordination and knavery, and was the only Athenian ordered by the generals to be banned by herald. [46]

I could go on to relate many other things regarding this man; but, since it is not lawful to speak in your court beyond the limits of the case, I ask you to reflect on this: it was these men who forced their way into our house, they who pursued us, and they who forcibly seized and dragged us out of our path. [47] Remembering these things, give your vote for justice, and do not suffer me to be unjustly ejected from my native land, for which I have braved many dangers and performed many public services: no harm have I ever brought upon that land, nor has any of my ancestors; nay, many are the benefits that we have brought her. [48] Justly, then, should I receive your pity, and that of all men else, not merely if I should meet with such a fate as Simon wishes, but even for having been compelled, as a result of such transactions, to stand my trial on such a charge.

1 The oath or affidavit （διωμοσία） taken by both parties to a suit at a private examination （ἀνάκρισις）. See fn. 5 on Antiph. 5, On the Murder of Herodes.

2 Athenian women usually lived in seclusion, and only left the house to attend a religious ceremony or festival: cf. Lys. 1.20; Thuc. 2.45.

3 A wealthy citizen, such as the speaker here, had to undertake certain public services, which he could only avoid by challenging some other citizen, whom he considered wealthier than himself, wither to exchange his property with him, or to undertake the service.

4 Either simply by carrying off the young man or else by arranging with him for a share in the money.

5 His pretence of having got the money back by private arrangement is the excuse he makes for not having formally claimed the money of which he says he was defrauded.

6 About 800 yards.

7 If Theodotus was a free Plataean, he would have the same rights as an Athenian citizen, and could not be subjected to torture. Perhaps he or his father was a Plataean slave, like Pancleon （see Lys. 23, Against Pancleon）, or had not yet established his claim to the citizenship. Cf. Aristoph. Frogs 694.

8 Cf. Plat. Laws 9.876e ff.

9 At the battle of Coronea in 394 B.C. the Athenians and Thebans fought the Spartans commanded by Agesilaus.

10 The officer commanding an infantry contingent front one of the ten tribes. Cf. Dem. 54.5.

It is surprising, gentlemen of the Council, that the fact of our reconcilement is so keenly disputed, and that, while he cannot deny his having restored the yoke of oxen, the slaves, amid all the goods on the estate that he received under the exchange,1 he denies, in face of the settlement clearly made on every point, that we agreed to share the woman between us. [2] It is plain that he made the exchange because of her; and the only reason he can give—if he wishes to speak the truth—for having restored what he received is that our friends reconciled us on all these matters. [3] I could wish that he had not been omitted by lot from the judges at the Dionysia,2 so that you might have seen clearly that he had been reconciled to me, from his decision that my tribe was the winner. In fact he recorded it thus on his tablet, but he was omitted by lot. [4] My statement on this is true, as Philinus and Diocles know: but it is not possible for them to testify when they have not taken oath3 upon the charge laid against me; you would then have perceived clearly that it was we who proposed him as judge, and that it was on account of us that he went on the bench. But—if he will have it so—he was our enemy: [5] I grant him that, for it makes no difference. So then I went myself to kill him, as he says, and forced my way into his house. Why, then, did I not kill him, having his person in my power, and having got the upper hand to the extent of taking the woman? Let him explain it to you: but he cannot tell you. [6] Furthermore, everyone of you is aware that he would have been killed more quickly by the stroke of a dagger than by the blow of a fist. Now, you find that not even he accuses us of having come with anything like that in our hands; he only says he was struck by a potsherd. Why, it is evident already from what he has said that there has been no premeditation. [7] For we should not have gone in that way, when it was uncertain whether we should find in his house a potsherd or something to serve for killing him, but should have brought it from home as we set out. In point of fact, we admit that we went to see boys and flute-girls and were in liquor: so how is that premeditation? [8] In no wise, to my thinking. But this man takes his love-sickness in an opposite fashion to the rest of us: he wants to have it both ways—to avoid paying up the money4 and to have the woman as well. And then, with his passion inflamed by the woman, he is excessively hasty of hand and the worse for liquor, and one is forced to defend oneself. As to her, sometimes it is I, and sometimes he, for whom she professes affection, wishing to be loved by both. [9] Now I have shown an easy temper from the beginning, as I still do to-day; but he has got into such an irritable state that he is not ashamed to call a black eye a wound, and to be carried about in a litter and pretend to be in a dreadful condition, for the sake of a harlot wench whom he is free to leave uncontested on restoring the money to me. [10] And he says that he has been plotted against in a monstrous way, and contests every point with us; yet although it was open to him to procure his proof by having the woman tortured,5 he refused. She would first have informed you whether she was shared by us or belonged only to him, whether I contributed half the money or he gave it all, and whether we had been reconciled or were still enemies; [11] also whether we went on receipt of a summons, or without invitation from anyone, and whether this man struck the first blow by assault, or I first hit him. Each of these points in turn, as of the rest, could have been cleared up with ease in every ease both for the public and for this court. [12]

Thus there has been neither premeditation nor wrongdoing on my part, gentlemen: this has been made clear to you by an abundance of evidences and testimonies. And I think it fair that, inasmuch as this man could have found an indication in favour of his speaking the truth in my evasion of the test of torture, I should equally find a proof that I am not lying in the fact that he refused to settle the question by means of the woman; and I claim that the less weight should be given to his words, when he says that she is free. For I am alike concerned in her freedom, since I have put down an equal sum of money.6 [13] But he lies, and does not speak the truth. What a monstrous position it would be! To ransom my person from the enemy, I could make what use of her I pleased7; but when I am in danger of losing my native land, I am not to be permitted even to ask her for a true statement on the matters for which I have been brought to this trial. Nay, it would be far more just to have her tortured for the purpose of this charge than to have her sold for my ransom from the enemy, inasmuch as, if they are willing to take a ransom, one can get plenty of means elsewhere for obtaining one's return; but if one is in the power of one's adversaries, it is impossible. For they are not set on gaining money, but make it their business to expel one from one's native land. [14] It is your duty, therefore, to reject his claim that the woman should not be tortured, which he made on the pretended ground of her freedom; you ought much rather to condemn him for slander, on the ground that he put aside so decisive a test in the expectation that he would easily deceive you. [15] For surely you should not regard his challenge as more convincing than ours, in regard to the points on which he claimed to have his own servants put to the torture. For as to their knowledge of our having gone to his house, we likewise admit that; but whether we were sent for or not, and whether I received the first blow or gave it, are things that she would be better able to know. [16] And then, had we put his servants, who were wholly his property, to that torture, they would have been led by a foolish complaisance to him into denying the truth and falsely accusing me. But this woman was our common possession, both alike having put down money, as she knew very well: it is on her account that all this business has come upon us. [17] And it will be observed by all that in having her put to the torture I must be at a disadvantage, and yet I ran this grave risk; for clearly she was much more attached to him than to me, and has joined him in wronging me, but has never joined me in offending against him. Nevertheless, while I sought her as my refuge, he put no confidence in her. [18]

You should therefore decline, gentlemen, when my danger is so great, to accept offhand the statements of this man: you should rather reflect that I have my native land and my livelihood at stake, and so should take these challenges into your reckoning. Do not look for still stronger pledges than these: I could not instance others to show that I did not premeditate anything against this man. [19] I am vexed, gentlemen, at finding myself in danger of losing what I value most on account of a harlot and a slave: for what harm have I ever done to the city, or to this man himself, or against what citizen have I committed any sort of offence? Nothing of the kind have I ever done, yet with the least show of reason in the world I am in danger of bringing upon myself a much more serious disaster on account of these men. [20] So I pray and beseech you, by your children, your wives, and the gods who keep this place, have pity on me, and do not suffer me to fall into the hand of this man, nor involve me in an irremediable calamity. For it is equally unfair that I should be banished from my own country, and that he should exact so heavy a penalty from me for wrongs which, though he says that he has received them, he has never received.

1 Apparently an exchange of property in the matter of a λειτουργία. See note on Lys. 3.20, and Lys. 4,. Introd.

2 The great dramatic festival, held about the end of March. Ten judges of the contests seem to have been appointed beforehand, but only some of these were chosen by lot for the actual recording of votes.

3 Witnesses must have taken a solemn oath at a preliminary stage before they could come before the Areopagus.

4 i.e., the half of the woman's price contributed by the speaker.

5 It was common in Athenian law-suits to demand or offer that slaves be tortured for the extraction of evidence. See below.

6 i.e., if I let her keep the sum paid by me, she can obtain her freedom; if not, she will continue to be a slave.

7 i.e. I could raise money by selling her. See below.

If Callias had anything else than his life at stake in this trial, gentlemen of the jury, I should be content with what you have heard from the other speakers; but, as it is, and when he urges and requests me, and he is not only a friend of mine but was one of my father's so long as he lived, and we have had many arrangements between us, I feel it would be disgraceful not to support Callias so far as justice requires and my ability permits. [2] I did expect, indeed, that the character that he showed as an alien residing in this city would far more readily gain for him some benefit at your hands than allow him to face so grave a danger because of such accusations as you have heard. But I find that these designing persons make life no less dangerous for those who have done no wrong than for those who are guilty of many misdeeds. [3] You, however, ought not to credit the statements of mere servants and discredit those of the accused; for you should reflect that no one, either private citizen or magistrate, has ever indicted Callias before, and that while dwelling in this city he has bestowed many benefits upon you, and has arrived at his time of life with a blameless reputation; whereas these men, having spent their lives in committing serious offences and incurring a variety of troubles, make their speeches to-day with an air of having performed a great service, merely in the hope of freedom.1 And I am not surprised; [4] for they know that, if they are convicted of lying, they will suffer nothing worse than their actual lot; while if they succeed in deceiving you they will be rid of their present troubles. Yet surely such men as these, whether accusers or witnesses, should win no credit, when they have a great profit to make for themselves by their statements concerning others; much rather should it be given to those who, to uphold the public weal,2 involve themselves in danger. [5] The trial, in my opinion, ought to be regarded, not as the personal affair of the accused, but as the common concern of everybody in the city; for these3 are not the only people who own servants; they are owned by everyone else, and looking at the fate of the accused will no longer ask themselves by what great service to their masters they might gain their freedom, but by what lying information about them. …

1 A slave whose accusation was accepted as true was rewarded with freedom. Cf. Lys. 7.16.

2 Perhaps Callias was employed by the stewards of the sacred treasure of the Parthenon, and was accused of embezzling some of it.

3 Others besides Callias appear to have been involved in the accusation.

… he tied up the horse to the ring on the temple door, as though he were handing it back; but on the following night he contrived to take it away. Well, the man who did this has perished by the most painful death, of hunger; for, although plenty of good things were set on the table before him, he found that the bread and cake had a vile odor, and he was unable to eat. [2] This fact a number of us heard stated by the priest in charge of the rites. [3] I therefore think it just that I should now recall in connection with the accused the statements made at that time, and that not only should his friends perish by his act and his information, but he himself too should perish by the action of another.

It is impossible for you on your part, when you give your vote on a matter of this kind, to show either pity or indulgence to Andocides, since you understand that these two goddesses1 take signal vengeance upon wrongdoers: every man ought therefore to expect the same consequences for himself and for others. [4] I would ask you, if you allow Andocides to get off now unscathed from this trial, and to attend for drawing the lots for the nine archons, and to be elected king-archon,2 shall we not see him performing sacrifices and offering prayers on your behalf according to ancestral custom, sometimes in the Eleusinium here,3 sometimes in the temple at Eleusis, and overseeing the celebration of the Mysteries, to prevent the commission of any offence or impiety concerning the sacred things? [5] And what, think you, will be the feelings of the initiated who arrive for the rite, when they see who the king is, and remember all his impious acts; or what the thoughts of the other Greeks who come for this celebration, purposing either to sacrifice or to attend in state4 at that great assembly? [6] For Andocides is by no means unknown either to foreigners or to our own people, such has been the impiety of his conduct; since it needs must be that, if they are specially outstanding, either good or evil deeds make their doers well-known. And besides, during his absence abroad he has caused commotion in many cities, in Sicily, Italy, the Peloponnese, Thessaly, the Hellespont, Ionia and Cyprus: he has flattered many kings—everyone with whom he has had dealings, except Dionysius of Syracuse. [7] That monarch is either the most fortunate of them all, or far above the rest in intelligence, since he alone of those who dealt with Andocides was not deceived by the sort of man who has the art of doing no harm to his enemies but as much as he can to his friends. So, by heaven, it is no easy matter for you to show him any indulgence in contempt of justice without being noticed by the Greeks. [8]

The moment, therefore, has come when you must of necessity make a decision on his case. For you are well aware, men of Athens, that it is not possible for you to live with our ancestral laws and with Andocides at the same time: it must be one of two things, either you must wipe out the laws, or you must get rid of the man. [9] He has carried audacity to such a pitch that he actually refers to the law we have made regarding him as one that has been abolished,5 and claims liberty henceforth to enter the market-place and the temples … even today in the Council House of the Athenians. [10] Yet Pericles, they say, advised you once that in dealing with impious persons you should enforce against them not only the written but the unwritten laws also, which the Eumolpidae6 follow in their exposition, and which no one has yet had the authority to abolish or the audacity to gainsay,—laws whose very author is unknown: he judged that they would thus pay the penalty, not merely to men, but also to the gods. [11] But Andocides has shown such contempt for the gods and for those whose duty it is to avenge them, that before he had been resident in the city ten days he instituted proceedings for impiety before the king-archon, and lodged his complaint,7 though he was Andocides, and had not only done what that person has done with regard to the gods, but asserted—and here you should give your closest attention—that Archippus was guilty of an impiety against the Hermes of his house. Archippus countered this with a sworn statement that the Hermes was sound and entire and had in no way been treated like the other figures of the god: [12] but at the same time, to avoid being troubled by a man of Andocides' sort, he got his release by a payment of money. Well now, since Andocides has sought to exact a penalty from another for impiety, surely justice and piety require that others should exact one from him. [13]

But he will say it is strange that the denouncer should suffer the extreme penalty, while the denounced are to retain their full rights and share the same privileges with you. Nay, in fact, he will not speak in his own defence, but will accuse the rest. Now of course the persons who ordered the recall of the rest are in the wrong, and are guilty of the same impiety as they: but if you, with your supreme authority, are yourselves the persons who have cheated the gods of their vengeance, it is certainly not those men who will be the guilty ones. Then do not allow this charge to rebound on you, when you are free to clear yourselves by punishing the wrongdoer. [14] Moreover, they deny the acts for which they have been denounced, whereas he admits those reported of him. And yet, in a trial before the Areopagus, that most august and equitable of courts, a man who admits his guilt suffers death, while if he contests the charge he is put to the proof, and many have been found quite innocent. So you should not hold the same opinion of those who deny and of those who admit the charge. And this, to my mind, is a strange thing: [15] whoever wounds a man's person, in the head or face or hands or feet, he shall be banished, according to the laws of the Areopagus, from the city of the man who has been injured, and if he returns, he shall be impeached and punished with death; but whoever does these same injuries to the images of the gods is not to be debarred by you from approaching the very temples, and is not to be punished for entering them! Nay, surely it is just and good to have a care for those beings by whom you may be either well or ill entreated. [16] It is even said that many of the Greeks exclude men from their own temples on account of impious acts committed here; while to you, the very persons who have suffered these wrongs, your own established customs are of less account than they are to mere strangers! [17] And mark how far more impious this man has shown himself than Diagoras the Melian8; for he was impious in speech regarding the sacred things and celebrations of a foreign place, whereas Andocides was impious in act regarding the sanctities of his own city. Now where these sacred things are concerned you should rather be indignant, men of Athens, at guilt in your own citizens than in strangers; for in the one case the offence is in a manner alien to you, but in the other it is domestic. [18] And do not let off those whom you hold here as wrongdoers, while you seek to apprehend those who are in exile, proclaiming by herald your offer of a talent of silver to anyone who arrests or kills them; else you will be judged by the Greeks to be making a brave show rather than intending to punish. [19] He has made it plain to the Greeks at large that he does not revere the gods. For without a sign of misgiving for his actions, but with an air of assurance, he took to ship-owning, and went voyaging on the sea. But the deity was enticing him on, that he might return to his iniquities and pay the penalty at my instance.9 [20] Well, I hope that he will indeed pay the penalty, and there would be nothing to surprise me in that; for the deity does not punish immediately, as I may conjecture by many indications, when I see others besides who have paid the penalty long after their impious acts, and their descendants punished for the ancestors' offences. But in the meantime the deity sends upon the wrongdoers many terrors and dangers, so that many men ere now have desired that their end had come and relieved them of their troubles by death. At length, it is only when he has utterly blasted this life of theirs that the deity has closed it in death. [21]

Only consider Andocides' own life since he committed his impiety, and judge if there is any other man to compare with him. For Andocides, when after his offence he was brought before the court by a summary citation,10 committed himself to prison, having assessed11 the penalty at imprisonment if he failed to hand over his attendant: [22] he knew well that he would not be able to hand him over, since he had been put to death in order to shield this man and his offences from his servant's denunciation. Now, must it not have been some god that destroyed his reason, when he conceived it to be easier for him to propose imprisonment than a sum of money, with as good a hope in either case? [23] However, as the result of this proposal he lay for nearly a year in prison, and informed as a prisoner against his own kinsmen and friends, having been granted impunity if his information should be deemed true. What soul do you think was his, when he could descend to the utmost depth of baseness in informing against his own friends, with so little prospect of deliverance? [24] After that, when he had achieved the death of those whom he professed to value most highly, he was held to have given true information and was released: you then passed a special decree that he was to be barred from the market-place and the temples, so that even if wronged by his enemies he could get no redress. [25] Why, nobody to this day, throughout the ever-memorable history of Athens, has been disqualified on so grave a charge. And justly; for neither has anyone to this day committed such acts. Should we attribute these results to the gods, or to mere chance? [26] After this he took ship and went to the king of Citium12; and being caught by him in an act of treachery he was imprisoned, and was in fear, not merely of death, but of daily tortures, expecting to be docked alive of his extremities. [27] But he slipped away from this danger and sailed back to his own city in the time of the Four Hundred13: such a gift of forgetfulness had Heaven bestowed on him, that he desired to come amongst the very persons whom he had wronged. When he came, he was imprisoned and tormented, but not to death, and he was released. [28] He then took a ship and went to Evagoras, who was king of Cyprus, committed a crime, and was locked up. He slipped away from those clutches also, a fugitive from the gods of our land, a fugitive from his own city, a fugitive from each place as soon as he arrived in it! And yet what charm could he find in a life of repeated suffering without a moment of respite? [29] He sailed back from that land to this city—then under a democracy —and bribed the presiding magistrates to introduce him here; but you banished him from the city, upholding at Heaven's behest the laws which you had decreed. [30] And there is not a democracy, an oligarchy, a despot, or a city anywhere that is willing ever to receive this man: during all the time since he committed his impiety he spends his days as a wanderer, trusting always to unknown people rather than known, because of the wrong that he has done to those whom he knows. Finally, on his present arrival in the city he has been twice impeached in the same place. [31] He keeps his person always in gaol, while his substance diminishes owing to his embarrassments. And yet, when a man portions out his own life among enemies and blackmailers, it is living no life at all. These shifts are suggested to him by the deity, not for his salvation, but to punish him for the impieties that have been committed. [32] And now at last he has given himself up to you, to be dealt with at your discretion, not trusting in an absence of guilt, but urged by some supernal compulsion. Now, by Heaven, it must not be that any man, whether elderly or young, should lose faith in the gods through seeing Andocides saved from his dangers, when all are acquainted with the unholy acts that he has committed: we should reflect that half a life lived in freedom from pain is preferable to one of double span that is passed, like his, in distress. [33]

But so high is the flight of his impudence that he actually prepares for a public career, and already speaks before the people, makes accusations, and is for disqualifying14 some of our magistrates; he attends meetings of the Council, and takes part in debates on sacrifices, processions, prayers and oracles. Yet, in allowing yourselves to be influenced by this man, what gods can you expect to be gratifying? For do not suppose, gentlemen of the jury, that, if you wish to forget the things that he has done, the gods will forget them also. [34] He claims a quiet enjoyment of his citizenship, as though he were no wrongdoer, nay, with the air of having himself discovered the injurers of the city; and he plans to have more power than other men, as though he had not to thank your mildness and preoccupation for his escape from punishment at your hands. He is trespassing against you now, as all can see; but the instant of his conviction will also be that of his punishment. [35]

But there is another argument on which he will insist,—for it is necessary to instruct you in the defence that he will make, in order that having heard both sides you may form a better decision: he says he has conferred great benefits on the city by laying information and relieving you of the fear and confusion of that time. But who was the author of our great troubles? [36] Was it not this very man, by the acts that he committed? After that, ought we to feel grateful to him for those benefits, because he laid information when you offered him impunity as his payment, and are you the authors of that confusion and those troubles, because you sought out the wrongdoers? Surely not: the case is quite the contrary; he threw the city into confusion, but you restored it to composure. [37]

I understand that he proposes to urge in his defence that the agreements15 hold for him in just the same way as for the rest of the Athenians; and on the strength of this pretext he supposes that many of you, in fear of breaking the agreements, will absolve him. [38] I will therefore explain how Andocides has no part in those agreements,—not only those, I aver, which you made with the Lacedaemonians, but also those which the men of the Piraeus made with the party of the town. For not one amongst us all had committed the same offences, or anything like the same, as Andocides, whence he might be able to make us serve his turn. [39] But of course, as it was not on his account that we were divided, we did not wait to include him under the terms of the agreements before we came to a reconciliation. It was not for the sake of a single man, but for the sake of us, the people of the town and of the Piraeus, that the agreements were made and the oaths taken; for surely it would be an extraordinary thing if we in our want had taken so much care of Andocides, an absentee, as to have his offences expunged. [40] Yet it may be said that the Lacedaemonians, in the agreements made with them, took care of Andocides because of some benefit that they had received from him; but did you take care of him? For what sort of good service? Because he has often risked danger on your account, in aid of the city? [41] There is no truth, men of Athens, in this defence of his; do not let yourselves be deceived. You have a breach of the agreements, not if Andocides is punished for his private offences, but if private requital is exacted from a man on account of public misfortunes. [42]

Perhaps, then, he will bring a counter-accusation against Cephisius, and he will have plenty to say; for the truth should be spoken. But you could not, by the same vote, punish both the defendant and the accuser. Now is the moment for a just sentence upon this man; another time will come for Cephisius, and for each of us whom he will now proceed to cite. Do not, therefore, be led by anger against another to absolve now the wrongdoer here before you. [43]

But he will say that he turned informer, and that no one else will be willing to give you information, if you punish him. Yet Andocides has got from you the informer's price, since he has saved his own life while bringing others, for that price, to their death. You are the authors of his salvation, but he is the author of his own present troubles and dangers, for he transgressed the decrees and the terms of impunity on which he turned informer. [44] You ought not to give informers a free licence for wrongdoing, since what is already done is enough: you have rather to punish them for their transgressions. All other informers who, after being convicted on disgraceful charges, have informed against themselves, understand one thing at least,—that they must not molest those whom they have wronged: they feel that while resident abroad they will be accounted Athenians in full possession of their rights, but that residing here among the citizens whom they have wronged they will be regarded as wicked and impious persons. [45] Batrachus, for instance, the most wicked, next to this man, of them all, having turned informer in the time of the Thirty,16 and being covered by agreements and oaths along with the party at Eleusis, was yet so afraid of those of you whom he had wronged that he made his abode in another city. But Andocides, who has wronged the very gods themselves, made less account of them by entering their temples than Batrachus did of mankind. He therefore who is both more wicked and more obtuse than Batrachus ought to be only too glad to have his life spared by you. [46]

Pray now, on what consideration ought you to absolve Andocides? As a good soldier? But he has never gone on any expedition from the city, either in the cavalry or in the infantry, either as a ship's captain or as a marine, either before our disaster17 or after our disaster, though he is more than forty years old. [47] Yet other exiles were captains with you at the Hellespont. Remember from what a load of trouble and warfare you by your own efforts delivered yourselves and the city: many were your bodily labours, many your payments from private and public funds, many the brave citizens whom you buried because of the war that you waged. [48] And Andocides, who suffered none of these troubles<who contributed nothing>18 to his country's salvation, claims now to take part in the affairs of the city, the scene of his impieties! But with all his wealth, and the power of his possessions, the accepted guest of kings and despots,—so he will now boast, well acquainted as he is with your character,— [49] what sort of contribution <or other aid did he furnish that>19 might stand to his credit? Knowing that the State was beset by storm and danger he, a seafarer, had not spirit enough to venture to aid the city by importing corn. Why, resident aliens from abroad, just because they were resident aliens, aided the city by such imports. But you, Andocides, what benefit have you actually conferred, what offences have you expiated, what return have you made for your nurture? … 20 [50]

Men of Athens, recall the actions of Andocides, and reflect too on the festival21 which has brought you special honor from the majority of mankind. But indeed you have become so stupefied by now with his offences, from your frequent sight and hearing of them, that monstrous things no longer seem to you monstrous. But apply your minds to the task of making your thought envisage the things that he did, and you will come to a better decision. [51] For this man donned a ceremonial robe, and in imitation of the rites he revealed the sacred things to the uninitiated, and spoke with his lips the forbidden words: those deities whom we worship, and to whom with our devotions and purifications we sacrifice and pray, he mutilated. And for such a deed priestesses and priests stood up and cursed him, facing the west,22 and shook out their purple vestments according to the ancient and time-honored custom. He has admitted this action. [52] Moreover, transgressing the law that you made, whereby he was debarred from the temples as a reprobate, he has violated all these restrictions and has entered into our city; he has sacrificed on the altars which were forbidden him, and come into the presence of the sacred things on which he committed his impiety; he has entered into the Eleusinium, and baptized his hands in the holy water. [53] Who ought to tolerate these doings? What person, whether friend or relation or townsman, is to incur the open enmity of the gods by showing him secret favour? You should therefore, consider that to-day, in punishing Andocides and in ridding yourselves of him, you are cleansing the city, you are solemnly purifying it from pollution, you are dispatching a foul scapegoat, you are getting rid of a reprobate; for this man is all of them in one. [54]

And now I would mention the advice that Diocles son of Zacorus the officiating priest, and our grandfather,23 gave you when you were deliberating on the measures to be taken with a Megarian who had committed impiety. Others urged that he be put to death at once, unjudged; he counselled you to judge him in the interest of mankind, so that the rest of the world, having heard and seen, might be more sober-minded, and in the interest of the gods he bade each of you, before entering the court, judge first at home and in his own heart what should be the fate of the impious. [55] So you, men of Athens,—for you understand what you are bound to do,—must not be perverted by this man. You hold him, caught in the open commission of impiety: you have seen, you have heard his offences. He will beseech and supplicate you: have no pity. For it is not those who justly, but those who unjustly, suffer death that deserve to be pitied.

1 Demeter and Persephone.

2 The king-archon's functions were mainly religious, and were especially concerned with the Mysteries.

3 As distinguished from the sanctuary at Eleusis.

4 Religious envoys came either as spectators or to give notice of a festival about to he held elsewhere.

5 A decree of Isotimides excluded from the market-place and the temples those impious persons who had obtained immunity by laying information against others.

6 The hereditary priests of Eleusis, who pronounced orally on cases of conscience, etc., and were the repositories of traditional, as distance from codified, custom.

7 （πρόσκλησις） was the citation of the person accused, and λῆξις was the formal complaint before the magistrate.

8 Called the “Godless”; cf. Aristoph. Birds 1073; Dio. Sic. 8.6.

9 The text implies that the deity is employing the speaker as a fair and convenient means of punishing Andocides.

10 ἐξ ἐπιβολῆς （if Taylor's conjecture is correct） must imply“as a result of a fine summarily inflicted” （by the archons）; cf. Lys. 30.3.

11 A defendant could propose a penalty as an alternative to that proposed by the plaintiff, and the judges had to vote for one or the other penalty.

12 On the south coast of Cyprus.

13 June to September, 411 B.C.

14 Any citizen could accuse a magistrate-elect at the public examination or scrutiny of his qualifications （δοκιμασία）.

15 The treaties for pacification and amnesty made on the restoration of the democracy in 403 B.C.

16 404-403 B.C.

17 The victory of the Peloponnesians over the Athenians at Aegospotami in the Hellespont, 405 B.C.

18 Translating Cobet's restoration of a gap in the text.

19 Some words denoting other public services appear to have fallen out of the text.

20 A page is missing here.

21 The Mysteries, in which the present judges had been initiated.

22 Cf. the solemn cursing of Alcibiades described by Plut. Alc. 22. In prayers and vows addressed to the celestial gods the speaker faced the east, but in those addressed to the infernal gods, the west.

23 It seems likely that the speaker's family belonged to the Eumolpidae or hereditary priesthood of the Mysteries.

Heretofore, gentlemen of the Council, I thought it possible for a person who so desired to avoid both law-suits and anxieties by leading a quiet life; but now I find myself so unexpectedly embarrassed with accusations and with nefarious slanderers that, if such a thing could be, I conceive that even those who are yet unborn ought now be feeling alarmed for what is in store for them, since the conduct of these men brings as great a share of danger upon those who have done no wrong as upon those who are guilty of many offences. [2] And this trial has been made especially perplexing for me, because at first I was indicted for clearing away an olive tree from my land, and they went and made an inquiry of the men who had brought the produce of the State olives; but having failed by this method to find that I have done anything wrong, they now say it is an olive-stump that I cleared away, judging that for me this is a most difficult accusation to refute, while to them it allows more freedom to make any statement that they please. [3] So I am obliged, on a charge which this man has carefully planned against me before coming here, and which I have only heard at the same moment as you who are to decide on the case, to defend myself against the loss of my native land and my possessions. Nevertheless I will try to explain the affair to you from the beginning. [4]

This plot of ground belonged to Peisander; but when his property was confiscated, Apollodorus of Megara had it as a gift from the people1 and cultivated it for some time, until, shortly before the Thirty,2 Anticles bought it from him and let it out. I bought it from Anticles when peace had been made.3 [5] So I consider, gentlemen, that my business is to show that, when I acquired the plot, there was neither olive-tree nor stump upon it. For I conceive that in respect of the previous time, even had there been sacred olives of old upon it, I could not with justice be penalized; since if we have had no hand in their clearance, there is no relevance in our being charged as guilty of the offences of others. [6] For you are all aware that, among the numerous troubles that have been caused by the war, the outlying districts were ravaged by the Lacedaemonians,4 while the nearer were plundered by our friends; so how can it be just that I should be punished now for the disasters that then befell the city? [7] And in particular, this plot of land, as having been confiscated during the war, was unsold for over three years: it is not surprising if they uprooted the sacred olives at a time in which we were unable to safeguard even our personal property. You are aware, gentlemen—especially those of you who have the supervision of such matters,—that many plots at that time were thick with private and sacred olive-trees which have now for the most part been uprooted, so that the land has become bare; and although the same people have owned these plots in the peace as in the war, you do not think fit to punish them for the up-rooting done by others. [8] And yet, if you exculpate those who have cultivated the land throughout the whole period, surely those who bought it in the time of the peace ought to leave your court unpunished. [9]

Well now, gentlemen, although I might speak at length on what had previously occurred, I think these remarks will suffice: but when I took over the plot, after an interval of five days I let it out to Callistratus, in the archonship of Pythodorus:5: [10] he cultivated it for two years, and had taken over no olive-tree, either private or sacred, nor any olive-stump. In the third year it was worked by Demetrius here for a twelvemonth; in the fourth I let it to Alcias, a freedman of Antisthenes, who is dead. After that Proteas too hired it in the same state during three years. Now, please step this way, witnesses.“Witnesses” [11]

Well now, since the termination of that time I have cultivated it myself. My accuser says that in the archonship of Souniades6 an olive-stump was uprooted by me. And the previous cultivators, who rented it from me for a number of years, have testified to you that there was no stump on the plot. I ask you, how could one convict the accuser more patently of lying? For it is not possible that the cultivator who came after cleared away what was not there before. [12]

Now formerly, gentlemen, whenever people declared me to be a shrewd, exact man who would do nothing at random or without calculation, I would take it hard, feeling that these terms were wide of my true character; but now I should be glad if you all held this opinion of me, so that you should expect me, if I did set about such an act as this, to consider what profit I stood to get by clearing away the stump, and what loss by preserving it, what I should have achieved if I went undetected, and what I should suffer at your hands if I were exposed. [13] For in every case such acts are done, not for mere mischief, but for profit; and that is the proper direction for your inquiry, and the prosecution should make that the basis of their accusation, by showing what benefit accrued to the wrongdoers. [14] Yet this man is quite unable to show either that I was compelled by poverty to venture on such an act, or that the plot was declining in value to me while the stump existed, or that it was obstructing vines or close to a building, or that I was unapprised of the dangers awaiting me in your court. [15] And if I had attempted anything of the kind, I should be openly exposed as having incurred many severe penalties for in the first place, it was daylight when I uprooted the stump,—as though I had not to do it unseen by all, but must let all the Athenians know! If the act had been merely disgraceful, one might perhaps have disregarded the passers-by; but the case was one of my risking, not disgrace, but the severest penalty. [16] And surely I must have been the most wretched of human creatures if my own servants were to be no longer my slaves, but my masters for the rest of my life, since they would be privy to that act of mine; so that, however great might be their offences against me, I should have been unable to get them punished. For I should have been fully aware that it was in their power at once to be avenged on me and to win their own freedom by informing against me.7 [17] Furthermore, supposing I had been of a mind to be heedless of my domestics, how should I have dared, when so many persons had rented the plot, and all were acquainted with the facts, to clear away the stump for the sake of a petty profit, while there was no statute of limitations8 to protect them, so that all who had worked the plot were alike concerned in the preservation of the stump, and hence they would be able, if anyone accused them, to transfer the blame to their successor? But as it is, they have manifestly absolved me,9 and have thus taken upon themselves a share of the charge in case they are lying. [18] Again, if I had settled this matter by arrangement, how could I have prevailed on all the passers-by, or the neighbors who not only know of each other what is open for all to see, but even get information of what we try to keep hidden from the knowledge of anyone? Now, some of those people are my friends, but others are at feud with me about my property: [19] these persons he ought to have produced as witnesses, instead of merely bringing these hazardous accusations; for he says I stood by while my domestics hewed down the stems and the wagoner loaded up the wood and took it right away. [20]

But surely, Nicomachus, you ought, at the time, both to have called up those who were present as witnesses, and to have exposed the affair: you would then have left me without any defence, while on your own part, if I was your enemy, you would have achieved by this means your vengeance upon me while if you were acting in the interest of the State, you would in this way have convicted me without being regarded as a slanderer. If you were looking for profit, you would have made the largest then; [21] for, the fact being exposed, I should have decided that my sole deliverance lay in seducing you. Well, you did nothing of the sort, and you expect that your statements will effect my ruin: you put in the plea that owing to my influence and my means there is no one willing to bear you witness. [22] Yet if, when you saw me—as you say—clearing away the sacred olive, you had brought the nine archons on the scene, or some other members of the Areopagus, you would not have had to seek witnesses elsewhere; for then the truth of your statements would have been ascertained by the very persons who were to decide upon the matter. [23]

So he makes my situation most perplexing; for if he had produced witnesses, he might claim that they should be believed, but as he has none, he thinks it is I who should suffer so much detriment from that. And I am not surprised—at him; for, to be sure, in his slanderous proceedings he is not going to be as hard up for statements of this sort as he is for witnesses; but you, I trust, will not be in agreement with this man. [24] For you understand that in the plain there are many sacred olives and burnt stumps on my other plots which, had I so desired, it would have been much safer to clear away or cut down or work over, inasmuch as among so many of them the wrongful act was likely to be less evident. [25]

But the fact is that I have as great a regard for them as for my native land and my whole property, realizing that it is the loss of both of these that I have at stake. And you yourselves I shall produce as witnesses to that fact;. for you supervise the matter every month, and also send assessors every year, none of whom has ever penalized me for working the ground about the sacred olives. [26] Now surely, when I pay so much regard to those small penalties, I cannot so utterly disregard the perils involved for my person. You find me taking all this care of the many olive-trees upon which I could more freely commit the offence, and I am on my trial to-day for clearing away the sacred olive which it was impossible to dig up unobserved! [27]

And under which government was I better placed for breaking the law, gentlemen,—that of the democracy, or that of the Thirty? I do not mean that I was influential then, or that I now stand falsely accused, but that there was a better chance for anyone who wished to commit a crime then than there is at present. Well, you will find that not even in that time did I do anything wrong, either in this or in any other way. [28] And how—except in all the world I were my own most malignant enemy—could I have attempted, with you supervising as you do, to clear away the sacred olive from this plot; in which there is not a single tree, but there was, as he says, a stump of one olive; where a road skirts the plot all round, and neighbors live about it on both sides, and it is unfenced and open to view from every point? So who would have been so foolhardy in these circumstances, as to attempt such a proceeding? [29] And I feel it is extraordinary that you, whom the city has charged with the perpetual supervision of the sacred olives, have never either punished me for working over the one of them nor brought me to trial for having cleared one away, and that now this man, who, as it happens, is neither farming near me nor has been appointed a supervisor nor is of age to know about such matters, should have indicted me for clearing away a sacred olive from the land. [30]

I beg you, therefore, not to consider such statements more credible than the facts, nor to tolerate such assertions from my enemies about matters of which you are personally cognizant: let your reflections be guided by what I have told you and by the whole tenor of my citizenship. [31] For I have performed all the duties laid upon me with greater zeal than the State required: alike in equipping a warship, in contributing to war funds, in producing drama, and in the rest of my public services, my munificence was equal to that of any other citizen. [32] Yet, if I had done these things but moderately and without that zeal, I should not be struggling to save myself at once from exile and from the loss of all my property, but should have increased my possessions without incurring guilt or imperilling my life: whereas, had I done what this man accuses me of doing, I stood to make no profit, but only to endanger myself. [33] Surely you will all acknowledge that it is fairer to judge important issues by important proofs, and to give more credit to the testimony of the whole city than to the accusations of this single person. [34]

And further, gentlemen, take note of the other events in the case. I went with witnesses to see him, and said that I still had the servants that I owned when I took over the plot, and was ready to delivery any that he wished to the torture, thinking that this would put his statements and my acts to stronger test. [35] But he declined, asserting that no credit could be given to servants. To my mind it is surprising that, when put to the torture on their own account, they accuse themselves, in the certain knowledge that they will be executed, but when it is on account of their masters, to whom they naturally have most animosity, they can choose rather to endure the torture than to get release from their present ills by an incrimination! [36] Nay, in truth, gentlemen, I think it is manifest to all that, had I refused to deliver the men at Nicomachus's request, I should be considered conscious of my guilt10; so, since he declined to accept them when I offered to deliver them, it is fair to form the same opinion regarding him, especially as the danger is not equal for us both. [37] For if they had made the statements about me that he desired, I should not even have had a chance of defending myself; while if they had not supported his statements, he was liable to no penalty. It behoved him, therefore, much rather to take them than it suited me to deliver them. For my part, I was so solicitous in the matter, because I felt it was in my favour to have you informed of the truth regarding this matter, at once by torture, by witnesses, and by evidence. [38] And you should consider, gentlemen, which side you ought rather to credit, those for whom many have borne witness, or one for whom nobody has ventured to do so; whether it is more likely that this man is lying, as he can without danger,11 or that in face of so grave a danger I committed such an act; and whether you think that he is vindicating the cause of the State, or has been playing the slanderer's trade in his accusation. [39]

For I believe it is your opinion that Nicomachus has been prevailed upon by my enemies to conduct this prosecution, not as hoping to establish my guilt, but as expecting to obtain money from me. For precisely as such actions at law are most damaging and perplexing, so everyone is most anxious to avoid them. [40]

But I, gentlemen, disdained that: as soon as he charged me, I placed myself entirely at your disposal, and came to terms with none of my enemies on account of this ordeal, though they take more pleasure in vilifying me than in commending themselves. Not one of them has ever attempted, openly and in his own person, to do me a single hurt; they prefer to set upon me men of this stamp, whom you cannot honestly believe. [41] For I shall be the most miserable of creatures if I am to be unjustly declared in exile: I am childless and alone, my house would be abandoned, my mother would be in utter penury, and I should be deprived of a native land, that is so much to me, on the most disgraceful of charges,—I who in her defence have engaged in many sea-fights and fought many battles on land, and have shown myself an orderly person under both democracy and oligarchy. [42]

But on these matters, gentlemen, I do not know what call I have to speak in this place. However, I have proved to you that there was no stump on the plot, and I have produced witnesses and evidence: these you should bear in mind when you make your decision on the case, and require this man to inform you why it was that, neglecting to convict me as taken in the act, he has delayed so long in bringing so serious an action against me; [43] why he seeks to be credited on the strength of his statements, unsupported by a single witness, when the bare facts would have sufficed to establish my guilt and why,on my offering all the servants whom he asserts to have been then present, he declined to accept them.

1 Peisander was a leader in the revolution of the Four Hundred （411 B.C.） and his property was fortified on the counter-revolution of the Five Thousand in the same year; Apollodorus was rewarded for taking part in the assassination of Phrynichus, another of the Four Hundred.

2 404 B.C.

3 After the fall of the Thirty and on the intervention of Sparta, 403 B.C.

4 During the Peloponnesian War Pericles kept the people inside Athens, and allowed the Lacedaemonians to devastate Attica, as he knew that the strength of Athens was on the sea, not on the land. “Our friends” may refer to Boeotian and Thessalian troops which aided the Athenians in occasional attacks on the invaders. Cf. Thuc. 2.14,19,22, etc.

5 404-403 B.C.

6 397-396 B.C.

7 Cf. Lys. 5.5, For Callias: Defense of a Charge of Sacrilege.

8 In non-religious cases, a limit of time might be prescribed by law beyond which a crime was not chargeable to anyone. Dem. 18.269.

9 By not accusing me for their own exculpation.

10 The offer of one's slaves for the extraction of evidence under torture was generally presumed to be a sign of one's innocence.

11 In prosecutions for impiety. and in certain other cases, the accuser was not subject to the rule that he forfeited 1000 drachmae and some of his civic rights if he failed to get a fifth of the votes of the judges.

It is a suitable opportunity, I consider, that I have taken to deal with matters on which I had long been wishing to speak; for we have here present the persons against whom I have to complain, and those present also before whom I am anxious to reprove the men who have done me wrong. To be sure, one is far more earnest towards men in their presence; for although I suppose that my opponents will count it as nothing to be considered unfriendly by their friends （else they would never have made even a first attempt to offend against me）, [2] to the rest I would like to show that I have done no wrong to these men, but that they were beforehand in wronging me. Now of course it is painful to be compelled to speak of these matters but it is impossible not to speak, when I meet with ill-treatment against my expectation, and find that I am wronged by those whom I took to be friends. [3]

Well then, first of all, so that none of you may perchance defend his faults by scraping up an excuse for his error, let him say who among you has been ill-treated by me in speech or in act, or who has made a request of me without getting what I was able to give as he proposed. Why, I ask, do you endeavor to do me harm, sometimes in word, and sometimes in deed; [4] and, what is more, to traduce me to these men, whom you traduced to myself? Nay, indeed, you were making so much mischief that one man preferred to appear to be concerned for me rather than have another give me information of it. I could not tell you the whole of what he said—the mere hearing of it was grievous to me—nor, for my protest against your aspersions on me, would I speak in the same terms; for I should be absolving you of my charge against you if I used the same language to you on my own behalf. [5] But I will tell you how, in thinking to do me an outrage, you made yourselves ridiculous. You asserted that it was an intrusion when I associated and talked with you; that despite all your efforts you did not know how to get rid of me; and finally, that it was against your will that you went with me on a mission to Eleusis. In making these statements you think you are defaming me, but you only reveal yourselves as utter dunderheads; for you were covertly abusing the same man whom at the same moment you were openly treating as a friend! [6] You ought to have refrained either from defaming him or from associating with him, and that by an open renunciation of his company. But if you felt that to be dishonorable, how was it dishonorable for you to associate with a man whom you did not even feel it honorable to renounce? [7] And, mark you, I for my part have discovered no ground on which you could reasonably have despised my company. For neither could I see that you were very clever and myself very stupid, nor indeed that you were surrounded with friends and myself destitute of them, nor again that you were wealthy and I poor, nor again that you were in particularly good repute and myself in ill odor, nor were my interests in danger and yours in safety. What reasonable ground, then, had I for suspecting that you were annoyed by my association with you? [8] Moreover, when you made these statements to our newest members, you did not expect that they would report them to us, and there you were, supposing it a fine stroke of cleverness to go round accusing yourselves to everyone of consenting to be in the company of evil men!

As to my informant, it would be vain for you to inquire. For, first of all, you know the person who told me, before you ask: how can you not know him, the man to whom you made your statement? [9] In the second place, I should do wrong to deal with him as he did with you. For he had not the same view in reporting it to me as you had in making it to him. He reported it to my relatives out of kindness to me, but you made it to him with the intention of injuring me. And if I disbelieved his words, I should seek to test them: [10] as it is, they tally with the former reports, and I find in them corroboration of those, as those amply corroborated them. So, first of all, dealing entirely through you with Hegemachus about the deposit of the horse, I wished to cancel the transaction as the horse was in a sickly state: Diodorus here tried to dissuade me, asserting that Polycles would make no objection to refunding the twelve minae. So he said at the time; but after the death of the horse he ranged himself in the end with these men as my opponent, saying that I had no right to recover the money. [11] Yet in fact they were merely accusing themselves. For if I had no rightful claim in regard to a wrong suffered through an arrangement shared with them, surely they were wrong in so sharing it. And I also thought it was for the mere theory of the thing that they took up the argument in opposition; but I found they were not arguing but acting against me, [12] and the purpose of their argument was to enable Polycles to know my argument. This became evident: in the presence of the arbitrators Polycles angrily said that even my friends considered that I was in the wrong,—so they told him. Now, does this tally with what was reported to me? My informant himself reported that you declared you would hinder those who intended to speak on my behalf, and had prevented several others already. What need have I to set the proof of these facts in a yet clearer light? I ask you, could that man know that, having asked Cleitodicus to speak next, I was refused? [13] I was told he was not present at the meeting. Then what profit was he seeking, when he was so zealous in getting me into disgrace with you that he busied himself with fabricating such a story for my relatives? [14] And I observe that not only now, but for a long time past, you have been seeking a pretext; as when you declared that Thrasymachus was defaming you because of me. Well, I asked him if it was because of me that he was defaming Diodorus; and how he disdained that “because of me”! For he said he was far from defaming Diodorus because of anybody. If I should prefer this charge, Thrasymachus was anxious to be put to the test in regard to this man's statements; [15] but to settle it thus was the last thing that the latter would have done. After that Autocrates told Thrasymachus in my presence that Euryptolemus was complaining of him, with the assertion that he was being defamed by him, and that the reporter of this was Menophilus. Immediately Thrasymachus walked over with me to see Menophilus; who asserted that at no time had he either heard it or reported it to Euryptolemus, and what was more, that he had not even talked with him for a long time. [16] Such were the pretexts that you clearly invented then from my association with Thrasymachus; but now that pretexts have failed you, in more straightforward oppression you show that you stop at nothing. I ought indeed to have understood then that this fate was in store for me, when you were actually defaming to me your own members; and then I have told you my whole opinion of Polycles, whom you are now supporting. [17] What can have made me so incautious? It was a fatuous lapse in me. I thought I was a friend of yours who was exempt from all defamation for the very reason that you defamed the others to me, since I held a pledge from each of you,—your malicious statements about one another. [18]

I therefore willingly resign your friendship, since, by Heaven, I cannot see what penalty I shall suffer by not associating with you; for neither did my association with you bring me benefit. Shall I find, when I have some suit, that I feel the lack of a pleader and witnesses? At present, instead of pleading in my defence, you try to prevent anyone from doing this, and instead of supporting me and bearing just witness, you associate with my opponents and bear witness for them. [19] Or, as my well-wishers, will you speak the best you can about me? Why, today you are the only persons who speak ill of me! Well, for my part I shall not hinder you. And this is what will happen to you among yourselves, since it is your habit to be ever injuring one of your associates in speech and in act; when I have left your association, you will turn against yourselves; then you will conceive a hatred of each one of your number in turn; and finally the last one left will defame himself. [20] And my advantage will be at least this,—that, by being the first to rid myself of you now, I shall suffer the least injury at your hands: for you injure both in speech and in act the people who have to do with you, but never a single one of those who have not.

What could have been the view of my opponents in disregarding the point at issue, and in seeking to traduce my character? Is it that they are unaware that their business is to speak on that point? Or, though well aware of this, do they consider it will pass unobserved that they have more to state on anything than on what is their business? [2] That those statements are made in a spirit of contempt, not for me, but for the point at issue, I clearly understand if, however, they suppose that from mere ignorance you will be induced by their aspersions to condemn me, this to me would be a surprise. [3] I did indeed suppose, gentlemen of the jury, that I had to face my trial on the charge referred, not on my character; but, as my opponents are traducing me, it is necessary to deal with all1 of their points in my defence. So then, to begin with, I will inform you as to the writ against me. [4] The year before last, after I had arrived in the city, I had not yet been in residence for two months when I was enrolled as a soldier. On learning what had been done, I at once suspected that I had been enrolled for some improper reason. So I went to the general,2 and pointed out that I had already served in the army; but I met with most unfair treatment. I was grossly insulted but, although indignant, I kept quiet. [5] In my perplexity I consulted one of our citizens as to the measures that I should take: I was told that they even threatened to put me in prison, on the ground that “Polyaenus had been as long a time in residence as Callicrates.”3 [6] Now my conversation just mentioned had been held at Philius's bank: yet Ctesicles and his follow-officers,4 on a report from somebody that I was abusing them, although the terms of the law only forbid the abuse of a magistrate at session of his court,—decided unlawfully to punish me. They imposed the fine, but instead of attempting to exact it, at the expiration of their term of office they recorded it on a register which they handed over to the clerks of the Treasury5 [7] So much for their operations; but the clerks of the Treasury, taking a very different view from theirs, demanded an explanation from the persons who had handed over the record, and inquired into the grounds of the charge. Hearing what had occurred, and impressed by the strange treatment I had received, they at first urged them to let me off, pointing out that it was not reasonable that any of our citizens should be registered as public debtors out of personal enmity; then, failing to dissuade them, they took upon themselves the risk of a trial before you, and ruled that the penalty was null and void … 6 [8] Well, that I was let off by the Treasury clerks, you now know. But although I consider that merely on the strength of this demonstration I ought to stand cleared of the impeachment, I will put in a yet stronger array both of laws and of other justifications. Now, please, take the law.“Law” [9]

You have heard how the law expressly enjoins the punishment of those who utter abuse at a session of the court. But I have produced witnesses to the fact that I did not enter the magistrates' hall, and that, as the fine was unjustly imposed on me, I neither owe it nor in justice ought to pay it. [10] For if it is evident that I did not go into the court, and the law enjoins that the fine is to be due from those who misbehave inside it, it is manifest that I have done no wrong, but because of enmity, and for no such act, have been fined against all reason. They knew in their own hearts that they had done wrong; [11] for they neither submitted their act to investigation,7 nor went into a law-court to get their proceedings confirmed by a vote. However, supposing they had been correct in imposing a fine on me, and had got the imposition confirmed in your court, I should stand fairly cleared of the impeachment by the release of the Treasury clerks. [12] For if they were not competent to exact or remit it, being lawfully fined I should reasonably owe the payment; but if they have power to remit, subject to rendering an account of their proceedings, they will easily be visited with the proper penalty for any wrong they have done. [13] Of the manner in which my name was handed over, and the fine imposed on me, you are now informed: but you must be apprised, not only of the charge referred, but also of the pretext for this enmity. I had made friends with Sostratus before their enmity began, because I knew he had done remarkable service to the State. [14] I became well-known through his personal influence, but did not make use of it either to avenge myself on an enemy or to serve a friend: for while he lived I was necessarily inactive on account of my age and when he passed away I injured none of my accusers either in word or in deed, and I can give such an account of myself as will show that in justice ought much rather to receive benefits than ill-treatment from my opponents. [15] Well, the circumstances that I have mentioned had the effect of accumulating their anger, though they had no real excuse for enmity. And so, having taken their oaths to enroll only those who had not served in the field, they violated those oaths, and then brought my case before the people for decision on a capital charge,8 [16] after having fined me for abusing the magistrates, and having utterly disregarded the claims of justice they were exerting themselves to injure me on any sort of plea, and they would have stopped at nothing so long as they could do me grievous injury and also win great advantage for themselves, seeing that when they are sure of neither of these ends they make everything of less account than their injustice. [17] Nay, the men who showed their contempt for the people of your city disdained also to show fear of the gods: so reckless and lawless were their proceedings that they did not even attempt to defend their actions; and finally, considering the revenge that they had taken on me insufficient, they took the last step of expelling me from the city.9 [18] In this mood of lawless violence they have not cared at all to conceal their injustice, but have summoned me here again on the same charge; and although I have done no wrong, they denounce me and abuse me with a shower of calumnies that have no connection with the tenor of my life, but are conformable and habitual to their own character. [19] These persons, then, are endeavoring on any sort of plea to get me cast in this suit. But you must neither be incited by their calumnies to condemn me, nor invalidate the decision of those who have acted on a better, and on a just, consideration.10 For their action was entirely in accordance with the laws and fair dealing, and it is plain that they have committed no injustice, but made most account of what is just. [20] The injustice of these men only caused me a moderate annoyance, as I considered it ordained that one should harm one's enemies and serve one's friends;11 but to be derived of justice at your hands would cause me a far deeper distress. For it will be thought that my evil plight is due, not to enmity, but to an evil condition of the State. [21] Professedly, indeed, I am on trial for the matter12 of this writ, but actually for my citizenship. If I obtain justice—and I have confidence in your verdict—I may remain in this city; but if the summons of these men should lead to my unjust conviction, I should run away. For with what hope to bear me up must I mingle with the citizens, or with what purpose in life, when I knew the zeal of my opponents, and could not tell where to look for any of my just rights? [22] Put justice, therefore, above everything else; reflect that you grant pardon even for glaring acts of injustice; and do not allow those who are guilty of no injustice to be unjustly entangled in the greatest misfortunes.

1 Yet, in what follows, we are spared the usual commendation of the speaker's character. He means, apparently （see the next sentence）, the whole story of how he came to be fined.

2 Whose duty it was to make up lists of citizens of military age, with instructions for specific, and post them on statues in the market-place.

3 Apparently Polyaenus had complained that a man named Callicrates, who had not been enlisted, had enjoyed a longer leave at home than himself.

4 i.e., the generals, who made the selection of men for military service.

5 In the temple of Pallas on the Acropolis.

6 A gap follows in the text, which should show that witnesses were called.

7 At the investigation of their acts （εὐθύναι held by εὔθυνοι, officials chosen by lot from the tribes）, to which all magistrates had to submit, they omitted this fine, on the ground that the matter had been referred to the Treasury.

8 The penalty being the loss of civic rights consequent on confiscation.

9 He means, by implication, if their suit for the fine should be successful.

10 He refers to the treasury officials.

11 This doctrine was accepted by Greek thought as part of the fixed order of things: it appears in Hes. WD 351, Pind. P. 2.83, and a saying of Simonides to this effect is taken by Plato as the starting-point of his discussion of justice in Plat. Rep. 1.332.

12 Namely, confiscation.

I believe that I shall not be at a loss for witnesses, gentlemen of the jury: for I see many of you in this place of judgement who were present at the time when Lysitheus was prosecuting Theomnestus for speaking before the people, since he had lost the right to do so by having cast away his armour. Now it was during that trial that he asserted that I had billed my own father. [2] If he accused me of having killed his own, I should forgive him his statement, regarding him as an insignificant and worthless person; nor, if I had heard him apply any other forbidden term to me, should I have taken steps against him, since I consider it a mark of a mean and too litigious person to go to law for slander. [3] But in the present case I feel it would be disgraceful, as it concerns my father, who has deserved so highly both of you and of the State,—not to take vengeance on the man who has made that statement; and I wish to know from you whether he will be duly punished, or whether he alone of the Athenians has the privilege of doing and saying whatever he pleases in defiance of the laws. [4]

My age, gentlemen, is thirty-two, and your return to the city1 was nineteen years ago. It will be seen, therefore, that I was thirteen when my father was put to death by the Thirty. At that age I neither knew what an oligarchy was, nor would have been able to rescue him from the wrong that he suffered.2 [5] Besides, I could have had no true motive in the monetary way for making designs upon him: for my elder brother Pantaleon took over everything, and on becoming our guardian he deprived us of our patrimony; so that I have many good reasons, gentlemen, for wishing my father alive. Now, although it is necessary to mention those reasons, there is no need to dwell on them at length; for you all know well enough that I am speaking the truth. Nevertheless I will produce witnesses to those facts.“Witnesses” [6]

Well, it may be, gentlemen, that he will make no defence on these points, but will state again to you what he had the boldness to say before the arbitrator3—that it is not a use of a forbidden word to say that someone has killed his father, since the law does not prohibit that, but does disallow the use of the word “murderer.” [7] For my part, gentlemen, I hold that your concern is not with mere words but with their meaning, and that you are all aware that those who have killed someone are murderers, and that those who are murderers have killed someone. For it was too much of a task for the lawgiver to write all the words that have the same effect; but by mentioning one he showed his meaning in regard to them all. [8] For I presume, Theomnestus, you would not go so far, while expecting to get satisfaction from a man who called you a father-beater or a mother-beater, as to consider that he should go unpunished for saying that you struck your male or your female parent because he had spoken no forbidden word! [9] And I should be glad if you would tell me this, since of this affair you are a past master, both in action and in speech: if a man said that you had cast your shield （in the terms of the law it stands,—“if anyone asserts that a man has thrown it away, he shall be liable to penalty”）, would you not prosecute him? Would you be content, if someone said you had cast your shield, to make nothing of it, because casting and throwing away are not the same thing? [10] Nay, if you were one of the Eleven,4 you would refuse to accept a prisoner arrested on the charge of having pulled off the accuser's cloak or stripped him of his shirt: by that same rule, you would rather let him go, because he was not called a clothes-stealer! Or if somebody were seized for the abduction of a child, you would declare him to be no kidnapper, since your contention will be about words, and you will have no thought to spare for deeds,—the objects for which words are everywhere made! [11] Then, again, consider this, gentlemen,—for I believe that this man, from indolence and enervation, has not even gone up to attend the Areopagus5: you all know that in that place, when they try cases of murder, they do not use this term in making the sworn statements, but the one which was used for slandering me; the prosecutor swears that the other party has killed, and the defendant that he has not killed. [12] Well now, it would be absurd to acquit the doer of the deed when he declared he was a murderer, on the ground that the prosecutor deposed on oath that the defendant killed. And is not this the same thing as what this man's plea will amount to? Why, you have taken proceedings yourself against Lysitheus for slander, because he said that you had cast your shield: yet there is nothing in the terms of the law about casting, whereas, if anyone says, that a man has thrown away his shield, it imposes a penalty of five hundred drachmae.6 [13] How monstrous it is, then, that when you have to avenge yourself on your enemies for slander you take the laws in the sense that I do now, but when you slander another in defiance of the laws you claim to escape punishment! Tell me, are you so clever that you are able to turn the laws about to suit your pleasure, or so powerful that you suppose that the people whom you have wronged will never get their revenge? [14] And then, are you not ashamed of such a senseless vagary as to presume on advantages due to you, not for any services done to the State, but for your unpunished offences? Please read me the law.“Law” [15]

Well, gentlemen, I think you have all perceived that my statement is correct, whereas this man is so stupid that he cannot understand a word that is said. So I would like to avail myself of some other laws for his instruction on these points, in the hope that even now, on the dais,7 he may learn a lesson, and may henceforward cease from his vexatious proceedings against us. Please read me those ancient laws of Solon. [16] “Law

“He shall have his foot confined in the stocks for five days, if the court shall make such addition to the sentence.”” The “stocks” there mentioned, Theomnestus, are what we now call “confinement in the wood.” So if a person confined should on his release accuse the Eleven, at their public examination, of having him confined, not in the stocks, but in the wood, they would take him for an idiot, would they not? Read another law. [17] “Law“He shall vow by Apollo and give security. If he dreads the course of justice, let him flee.””

Here to “vow” is to “swear,” and “flee” is what we now call “run away.”“Law“Whosoever debars with his door, when the thief is within,””—Here to “debar” is taken to be “shut out”; no dispute, now, on that score! [18] “Law“Money shall be placed out at whatever rate the lender may choose.”” “Placed out” here, my fine fellow, is not a case of placing in the balance, but of drawing interest to such amount as one may choose. Once more, read the final clause of this same law. [19] “Law“All women who ply about overtly,”” and“Law“for hurt to a varlet the redress shall be double.”” Pay attention: “overtly” is “openly,” “ply about” is “walk about,” and a “varlet” is a “servant.” [20] We have many other instances of the sort, gentlemen. But if he is not a numskull, I suppose he has realized that things are the same now as they were of old, but that in some cases we do not use the same terms now as we did formerly. And he will show as much, for he will leave the dais and depart in silence. [21] If not, I beg you, gentlemen, to vote according to justice, reflecting that it is a far greater slur to be told that one has killed one's father than that one has thrown away one's shield. I, for one, would rather have cast any number of shields than entertain such thoughts regarding my father. [22]

Now this man, on a charge which was well-founded, but which involved less disaster to him, obtained not only your pity, but even the disfranchisement8 of the witness for the prosecution. But I, who have seen him do that9 which you likewise know, who have saved my own shield, who have been accused of a proceeding thus unholy and monstrous, and whose disaster will be overwhelming if he is acquitted, while his will be inconsiderable if he is convicted of slander,-am I not to obtain satisfaction from him? What imputation have you standing against me? [23] Is it that I have been justly accused? No, not even yourselves can say so. That the defendant is a better man and of better birth than I? No; not he himself can claim this. That having thrown away my arms I am suing for slander a man who saved his? This is not the story that has been disseminated in the city. [24] Remember that there you have presented him with a rich and goodly gift10 in that respect, who would not pity Dionysius for the disaster that overtook him, after he had proved himself a man of the highest valor in times of danger, [25] who on leaving the court remarked that that was our most calamitous campaign, in which many of us were killed, and those who saved their arms had been condemned for false witness at the suit of those who threw theirs away; and that it had been better for him to be killed on that day than return home to meet with such a fate? [26] Do not, then, if you pity Theomnestus for the obloquy that he deserves, forgive him for outrages and expressions whereby he has broken the laws. For what greater misfortune could befall me, after I have had such shameful charges brought against me, and in relation to such a father? [27] He was general many times, and shared your peril besides in many a conflict; neither did his person fall into the hands of the enemy, nor was he ever convicted by his fellow-citizens at any audit of his service, but at the age of sixty-seven he lost his life under the oligarchy for loyalty to your people. [28] Is there not good cause to feel anger against the man who has made such statements, and to defend my father as included in this calumny? For what more distressing fate could overtake him than this,—after being slain by his enemies, to bear the reproach of having been destroyed by his children? Even now, gentlemen, the memorials of his valor are hanging in your temples, while those of this man's and his father's baseness are seen in the temples of the enemy, so ingrained is cowardice in their nature. [29] And indeed, gentlemen, the taller and more gallant they are in looks, the more they are deserving of anger. For it is clear that, though strong in their bodies, they are ill in their souls. [30]

I hear, gentlemen, that he is resorting to the argument that he has made these statements in a fit of anger at my having borne witness to the same effect as Dionysius. But your reflection on this, gentlemen, must be that the lawgiver grants no indulgence to anger he punishes the speaker, unless he proves the truth of the statements that he has made. I myself have now borne witness twice in regard to this man; for I was not yet aware that you punished the persons who had seen the deed, but pardoned those who had done the throwing away. [31]

I doubt if on these points there is need to say any more. I request you to condemn Theomnestus, reflecting that no trial could be more serious for me than the present. For although I am now prosecuting for slander, yet at the same casting of your vote I am prosecuted for murdering my father,—I who alone, as soon as I was certified to be of age,11 indicted the Thirty before the Areopagus. [32] Remembering these reasons, vindicate me and my father, and also the established laws and the oaths that you have sworn.

1 403 B.C.

2 The speaker was thus too young either to be implicated in the political murder of his father or to aid in his protection.

3 At the preliminary trial, which was subject to appeal to a higher court. See Introduction, p. 196, note b.

4 Magistrates who had powers of summary arrest and judgement in capital and other serious cases, and also the charge of prisons and executions.

5 The speaker suggests that Theomnestus's ignorance shows that he has never attended a sitting of the Areopagus, the most august tribunal of Athens.

6 About 330 pounds.

7 There were separate raised seats for the prosecutor and the defendant.

8 For perjury.

9 Namely, throw away his shield.

10 i.e., his success in securing the condemnation and disfranchisement of Dionysius, the other witness in the previous trial.

11 By the Council, when he was eighteen years old.

That he asserted that I had killed my father is in the knowledge of many of you, and they are my witnesses. But that I have not done it is evident; for I am thirty-two years old, and this is the twentieth year since your return to the city. [2] You see, then, that I was twelve years old when my father was put to death by the Thirty, so that I did not even know what an oligarchy was, nor was I capable of defending my father. Nor, again, was his property a motive for my having designs upon him; for my elder brother got everything, and left us destitute. [3]

Perhaps he will say that it is not among the forbidden things to say a man has killed his father, since the law does not prohibit this, but disallows the word “murderer.” But I think our dispute ought not to be over mere terms, but over the intention shown in acts, and that everyone knows that all who have killed others are murderers of those same persons, and those who are murderers of another have killed that man. [4] For it would be too great a task for the lawgiver to write all the terms that have the same meaning: he preferred to mention one which should indicate all. I presume it cannot be that, if anyone who calls you a father-beater or a mother-beater is liable to a penalty, at the same time a person who says that you strike your male or female parent is to escape punishment. [5] So, if someone calls a man a shield-caster, he is to be immune, since the law imposes a penalty for saying that a man has thrown away his shield, but not for saying he has cast it. Similarly, if you were one of the Eleven, you would not accept a prisoner arrested for stripping a man of his cloak or his shirt, unless he were given the name of clothes-stealer. [6] Nor, if someone abducted a child, would you accept him as a kidnapper. Now you have yourself taken proceedings for slander against the person who said you had cast your shield: yet it is not so written in the law, but the phrase is “saying a man has thrown it away.” How monstrous, then, that if such a thing is said about you, you should make play with the laws in the way I am doing now, and should be avenged on your enemies; but if you say such a thing yourself, you should claim to escape punishment! [7] I ask you, therefore, gentlemen, to protect me, reflecting that it is a greater injury to be accused of killing one's father than of having cast one's shield. I, for one, would rather admit to having thrown away any number than to entertaining such thoughts regarding my father. Yet I have seen this man acting in the way that you know, while I myself saved my shield. So on what ground should I fail to get redress from him? [8] What imputation stands against me? That I have been justly accused? No, not even yourselves can say so. That the defendant is a better man? No, not even himself can claim this. That having thrown away my arms I am suing a man who saved his? This is not the story that has been dispersed over the city. [9] Do not, then, pity him for obloquy that he deserves, nor forgive him for outrages and expressions whereby he has broken the laws, especially in regard to a man1 who has held many generalships and shared many of your perils; who has neither fallen into the hands of the enemy nor been convicted by you at the audit of his service, and who at the age of seventy lost his life under the oligarchy for loyalty to you. There is good cause to feel anger on his account: [10] for what more distressing repute could he have than this,—after being slain by his enemies to bear the reproach of having been destroyed by his children? The memorials of his valor are hanging in your temples, while those of these people's baseness are seen in the temples of the enemy. [11]

He will say that he has made the statement in a fit of anger. But your reflection on this must be that the lawgiver grants no indulgence to anger; he punishes the speaker, unless he proves the truth of his words. I have borne witness twice in regard to this man: for I was not aware that you punished the persons who had seen the deed, but pardoned those who had done the throwing away. I therefore request you to condemn him. [12] For although at this moment I am prosecuting for slander, yet at the same casting of your vote I am prosecuted for murdering my father: no trial could be more serious for me than this; and I alone, when certified of age, indicted the Thirty before the Areopagus. Vindicate, therefore, both my father and me.

1 The speaker's father.

The difficulty that faces me, gentlemen of the jury, is not in beginning my accusation, but in bringing my speech to an end: so enormous, so numerous are the acts they have committed, that neither could lying avail one to accuse them of things more monstrous than the actual facts, nor with every desire to speak mere truth could one tell the whole; of necessity either the accuser must be tired out or his time must run short. [2] It seems to me that our positions will be the reverse of what they were in former times: for previously the accusers had to explain their enmity towards the defendants; but in the present case inquiry must be made of the defendants as to the motive of their enmity towards the city in committing such audacious offences against her. It is not, in deed, from any lack of private enmities and sufferings that I make these remarks, but because of the abundant reasons that all of us have for anger on personal grounds, or in the interest of the public. [3] Now as for myself, gentlemen, having never engaged in any suit either on my own account or on that of others, I have now been compelled by what has occurred to accuse this man: hence I have been often overcome with a great feeling of despondency, from a fear lest my inexperience might cause me to fail in making a worthy and able accusation on my brother's and on my own behalf. Nevertheless I will try to inform you of the matter from the beginning, as briefly as I can. [4]

My father Cephalus was induced by Pericles to come to this country,1 and dwelt in it for thirty years: never did he, any more than we,2 appear as either prosecutor or defendant in any case whatever, but our life under the democracy was such as to avoid any offence against our fellows and any wrong at their hands. [5] When the Thirty, by the evil arts of slander-mongers, were established in the government, and declared that the city must be purged of unjust men and the rest of the citizens inclined to virtue and justice, despite these professions they had the effrontery to discard them in practice, as I shall endeavor to remind you by speaking first of my own concerns, and then of yours. [6] Theognis and Peison3 stated before the Thirty that among the resident aliens that there might be some who were embittered against their administration, and that therefore they had an excellent pretext for appearing to punish while in reality making money; in any case, the State was impoverished, and the government needed funds. [7] They had no difficulty in persuading their hearers, for those men thought nothing of putting people to death, but a great deal of getting money. So they resolved to seize ten, of whom two should be poor men, that they might face the rest with the excuse that the thing had not been done for the sake of money, but had been brought about in the interest of the State, just as if they had taken some ordinary reasonable action. [8] They apportioned the houses among them, and began their visits: they found me entertaining guests, and after driving these out they handed me over to Peison. The others went to the factory4 and proceeded to make a list of the slaves. I asked Peison if he would save me for a price: [9] he assented, on condition that it was a high one. So I said that I was prepared to give him a talent of silver, and he agreed to my proposal. I knew well, indeed, that he had no regard either for gods or for men; but still, in the circumstances, I thought it imperative to get him pledged. [10] When he had sworn, invoking annihilation upon himself and his children if he did not save me on receipt of the talent, I went into my bedroom and opened the money-chest. Peison noticed it and came in; on seeing its contents he called two of his underlings and bade them take what was in the chest. [11] Since he now had, instead of the agreed amount, gentlemen, three talents of silver, four hundred cyzicenes, a hundred darics5 and four silver cups, I begged him to give me money for my journey; but he declared that I should be glad enough to save my skin. [12] As Peison and I were coming out, we were met by Melobius and Mnesitheides,6 who were on their way from the factory: they lighted upon us just at the door, and asked where we were going. Peison declared that he was off to my brother's, for the purpose of examining the property in that house also. So they bade him go his way, but told me to follow along with them to Damnippus's house. [13] Peison came up and urged me to keep silent and have no fear, as he was coming on to that place. There we found Theognis guarding some others; they handed me over to him, and went off again. Situated as I was I decided to take a risk, since death was already my portion. [14] I called Damnippus and said to him: “You are in friendly relations with me, and I have come into your house; I have done no wrong, but am being destroyed for the sake of my money. This being my plight, exert your own utmost efforts for my salvation.” He promised to do so; and he decided that he had better mention it to Theognis, as he believed that he would do anything for an offer of money. [15] While he was in conversation with Theognis—I happened to be familiar with the house, and knew that it had doors front and back—I decided to try this means of saving myself, reflecting that, if I should be unobserved, I should be saved; while, if I were caught, I expected that, should Theognis be induced by Damnippus to take money, I should get off none the less, but should he not, I should be put to death just the same. [16] With these conclusions I took to flight, while they were keeping guard over the courtyard door:7 there were three doors8 for me to pass through, and they all chanced to be open. I reached the house of Archeneos the ship-captain, and sent him into town to inquire after my brother: on his return he told me that Eratosthenes had arrested him in the street and taken him off to prison. [17] Thus apprised of his fate, I sailed across on the following night to Megara. Polemarchus received from the Thirty their accustomed order to drink hemlock, with no statement made as to the reason for his execution: still less was he allowed to be tried and defend himself. [18] And when he was being brought away dead from the prison, although we had three houses amongst us, they did not permit his funeral to be conducted from any of them, but they hired a small hut in which to lay him out. We had plenty of cloaks, yet they refused our request of one for the funeral; but our friends gave either a cloak, or a pillow, or whatever each had to spare, for his interment. [19] They had seven hundred shields of ours, they had all that silver and gold, with copper, jewellery, furniture and women's apparel beyond what they had ever expected to get; also a hundred and twenty slaves, of whom they took the ablest, delivering the rest to the Treasury; and yet to what extremes of insatiable greed for gain did they go, in this revelation that they made of their personal character! For some twisted gold earrings, which Polemarchus's wife had in her possession when she first came into his house, were taken out of her ears by Melobius. [20] And not even in respect of the smallest fraction of our property did we find any mercy at their hands but our wealth impelled them to act as injuriously towards us as others might from anger aroused by grievous wrongs. This was not the treatment that we deserved at the city's hands, when we had produced all our dramas for the festivals,9 and contributed to many special levies;10 when we showed ourselves men of orderly life, and performed every duty laid upon us; when we had made not a single enemy, but had ransomed many Athenians from the foe. Such was their reward to us for behaving as resident aliens far otherwise than they did as citizens! [21] For they sent many of the citizens into exile with the enemy; they unjustly put many of them to death, and then deprived them of burial; many who had full civic rights they excluded from the citizenship; and the daughters of many they debarred from in tended marriage. [22] And they have carried audacity to such a pitch that they come here ready to defend themselves, and state that they are guilty of no vile or shameful action. I myself could have wished that their statement were true; for my own share in that benefit would not have been of the smallest. [23] But in fact they have nothing of the sort to show in regard either to the city or to me: my brother, as I said before, was put to death by Eratosthenes, who was neither suffering under any private wrong himself, nor found him offending against the State, but merely sought to gratify his own lawless passions. [24] I propose to put him up on the dais and question him, gentlemen of the jury. For my feeling is this: even to discuss this man with another for his profit I consider to be an impiety, but even to address this man himself, when it is for his hurt,11 I regard as a holy and pious action. So mount the dais, please, and answer the questions I put to you. [25]

Did you arrest Polemarchus or not?—I was acting on the orders of the government, from fear.—Were you in the Council-chamber when the statements were being made about us?—I was.—Did you speak in support or in opposition of those who were urging the death sentence?—In opposition.—You were against taking our lives?—Against taking your lives.—In the belief that our fate was unjust, or just?—That it was unjust. [26]

So then, most abandoned of mankind, you spoke in opposition to save us, but you helped in our arrest to put us to death! And when our salvation depended on the majority of your body, you assert that you spoke in opposition to those who sought our destruction; but when it rested with you alone to save Polemarchus or not, you arrested him and put him in prison. So then, because you failed to help him, as you say, by your speech in opposition, you claim to be accounted a good citizen, while for having apprehended him and put him to death you are not to give satisfaction to me and to this court! [27]

And further, supposing he is truthful in asserting that he spoke in opposition, observe that there is no reason to credit his plea that he acted under orders. For I presume it was not where the resident aliens were concerned that they sought to put him to the proof.12 And then, who was less likely to be given such orders than the man who was found to have spoken in opposition and to have declared his opinion? For who was likely to be less active in this service than the man who spoke in opposition to the object that they had at heart? [28] Again, the rest of the Athenians have a sufficient excuse, in my opinion, for attributing to the Thirty the responsibility for what has taken place; but if the Thirty actually attribute it to themselves, how can you reasonably accept that? [29] For had there been some stronger authority in the city, whose orders were given him to destroy people in defiance of justice, you might perhaps have some reason for pardoning him; but whom, in fact, will you ever punish, if the Thirty are to be allowed to state that they merely carried out the orders of the Thirty? [30] Besides, it was not in his house, but in the street, where he was free to leave both him and the decrees of the Thirty intact,13 that he apprehended him and took him off to prison. You feel anger against everyone who entered your houses in search either of yourselves or of some member of your household: [31] yet, if there is to be pardon for those who have destroyed others to save themselves, you would be more justified in pardoning these intruders; for it was dangerous for them not to go where they were sent, and to deny that they had found the victims there. But Eratosthenes was free to say that he had not met his man, or else that he had not seen him for these were statements that did not admit of either disproof or inquisition; so that not even his enemies, however they might wish it, could have convicted him. [32] If in truth, Eratosthenes, you had been a good citizen, you ought far rather to have acted as an informant to those who were destined to an unjust death than to have laid hands on those who were to be unjustly destroyed. But the fact is that your deeds clearly reveal the man who, instead of feeling pain, took pleasure in what was being done; so that this court should take its verdict from your deeds, not from your words. [33] They should take what they know to have been done as evidence of what was said at the time, since it is not possible to produce witnesses of the latter. For we were restricted, not merely from attending their councils, but even from staying at home; and thus they have the licence, after doing all possible evil to the city, to say all possible good about themselves. [34] That one point, however, I do not contest; I admit, if you like, that you spoke in opposition. But I wonder what in the world you would have done if you had spoken in favour, when in spite of your alleged opposition you put Polemarchus to death.

Now I would ask the court, even supposing that you had happened to be brothers or sons of this man, what would you have done? Acquitted him? For, gentlemen, Eratosthenes is bound to prove one of two things,—either that he did not arrest him, or that he did so with justice. But he has admitted that he laid hands on him unjustly,14 so that he has made your verdict on himself an easy matter. [35] And besides, many foreigners as well as townsfolk have come here to know what is to be your judgement on these men. The latter sort, your fellow-citizens, will have learnt before they leave, either that they will be punished for their offences, or that, if they succeed in their aims, they will be despots of the city, but, if they are disappointed, will be on an equality with you. As for all the foreigners who are staying in town, they will know whether they are acting unjustly or justly in banning the Thirty from their cities. For if the very people who have suffered injury from them are to let them go when they have hold of them, of course they will consider it a waste of pains on their own part to keep watch on your behalf. [36] And how monstrous it would be, when you have punished with death the commanders who won the victory at sea15—they said that a storm prevented them from picking up the men in the water, but you felt that you must make them give satisfaction to the I valor of the dead—if these men, who as ordinary persons used their utmost endeavors towards your defeat in the sea-fights,16 and then, once established in power, admit that of their own free will they put to death many of the citizens without a trial,—if these men, I say, and their children are not to be visited by you with the extreme penalty of the law! [37]

Now I, gentlemen, might almost claim that the accusations you have heard are sufficient: for I consider that an accuser ought to go no further than to show that the defendant has committed acts that merit death; since this is the extreme penalty that we have power to inflict upon him. So I doubt if there is any need to prolong one's accusation of such men as these; for not even if they underwent two deaths for each one of their deeds could they pay the penalty in full measure. [38] And note that he cannot even resort to the expedient, so habitual among our citizens, of saying nothing to answer the counts of the accusation, but making other statements about themselves which at times deceive you; they represent to you that they are good soldiers, or have taken many vessels of the enemy while in command of war-ships, or have won over cities from hostility to friendship. [39] Why, only tell him to point out where they killed as many of our enemies as they have of our citizens, or where they took as many ships as they themselves surrendered, or what city they enlisted to compare with yours which they enslaved. [40] Nay, indeed, did they despoil the enemy of as many arms as they stripped from you? Did they capture fortifications to compare with those of their own country which they razed to the ground? They are the men who pulled down the forts around Attica, and made it evident to you that even in dismantling the Peiraeus they were not obeying the injunctions of the Lacedaemonians, but were thinking to make their own authority the more secure. [41]

I have often wondered, therefore, at the audacity of those who speak in his defence, except when I reflect that the same men who commit every sort of crime are wont also to commend those who act in a similar way. [42] For this is not the first occasion of his working in opposition to your people in the time of the Four Hundred17 also, seeking to establish an oligarchy in the army, he abandoned the war-ship which he was commanding and fled from the Hellespont with Iatrocles and others whose names I have no call to mention. On his arrival here he worked in opposition to those who were promoting a democracy. I will present you with witnesses to these facts.“Witnesses” [43] Now his life in the interval I will here pass over: but when the sea-fight18 took place, with the disaster that befell the city, and while we still had a democracy （at this point they started the sedition）, five men were set up as overseers19 by the so-called “club men,” to be organizers of the citizens as well as chiefs of the conspirators and opponents of your common wealth; and among these were Eratosthenes and Critias. [44] They placed tribal governors over the tribes, and directed what measures should be passed by their votes and who were to be magistrates; and they had absolute powers for any other steps that they chose to take. Thus by the plotting, not merely of your enemies, but even of these your fellow-citizens, you were at once prevented from passing any useful measure and reduced to a serious scarcity. [45] For they knew perfectly well that in other conditions they could not get the upper hand, but that if you were in distress they would succeed. And they supposed that in your eagerness to be relieved of your actual hardships you would give no thought to those that were to follow. [46] Now, to show that he was one of the overseers, I will offer you witnesses; not the men who then acted with him,—for I could not do that,—but those who heard it from Eratosthenes himself: [47] yet truly, if they were sensible,20 they would be bearing witness against those persons, and would severely punish their instructors in transgression; instead of holding themselves bound by their oaths to the detriment of the citizens, if they were sensible they would make light of breaking those oaths for the advantage of the city. So much then, I would say in regard to them: now call my witnesses. Go up on the dais.“Witnesses” [48] You have heard the witnesses. Finally, when he was established in power, he had a hand in no good work, but in much that was otherwise. Yet, if he was really a good man, it behoved him in the first place to decline unconstitutional powers, or else to lay information before the Council exposing the falsity of all the impeachments, and showing that Batrachus and Aeschylides, so far from giving true information, were producing as impeachments the fabrications of the Thirty, devised for the injury of the citizens. [49] Furthermore, gentlemen, anyone who was ill-disposed towards your people lost nothing by holding his peace: for there were other men to speak and do things of the utmost possible detriment to the city. As for the men who say they are well-disposed, how is it that they did not show it at the moment, by speaking themselves to the most salutary purpose and deterring those who were bent on mischief? [50]

He could say, perhaps, that he was afraid, and to some of you this plea will be satisfactory. Then he must take care that he is not found to have opposed the Thirty in discussion: otherwise the fact will declare him an approver of their conduct who was, moreover, so influential that his opposition would bring him to no harm at their hands. He ought to have shown this zeal in the interest rather of your safety than of Theramenes, who has committed numerous offences against you. [51] No, this man considered the city his enemy, and your enemies his friends; both of these points I will maintain by many evidences, showing that their mutual disputes were not concerned with your advantage but with their own, in the contest of their two parties21 as to which should have the administration and control the city. [52] For if their quarrel had been in the cause of those who had suffered wrong, at what moment could a ruler have more gloriously displayed his own loyalty than on the seizure of Phyle by Thrasybulus?22 But, instead of offering or bringing some aid to the men at Phyle, he went with his partners in power to Salamis and Eleusis, and haled to prison three hundred of the citizens, and by a single resolution23 condemned them all to death. [53]

After we had come to the Peiraeus, and the commotions had taken place, and the negotiations were in progress for our reconciliation, we were in good hopes on either side of a settlement between us, as both parties made evident. [54] For the Peiraeus party, having got the upper hand, allowed the others to move off: these went into the town, drove out the Thirty except Pheidon and Eratosthenes, and appointed their bitterest enemies as leaders, judging that the same men might fairly be expected to feel both hate for the Thirty and love for the party of the Peiraeus. [55] Now among these24 were Pheidon, Hippocles, and Epichares of the district of Lamptra, with others who were thought to be most opposed to Charicles and Critias and their club: but as soon as they in their turn were raised to power, they set up a far sharper dissension and warfare between the parties of the town and of the Peiraeus, [56] and thereby revealed in all clearness that their faction was not working for the Peiraeus party nor for those who were being unjustly destroyed; and that their vexation lay, not in those who had been or were about to be put to death, but in those who had greater power or were more speedily enriched. [57] For having got hold of their offices and the city they made war on both sides,—on the Thirty who had wrought every kind of evil, and on you who had suffered it in every way. And yet one thing was clear to all men,—that if the exile of the Thirty was just, yours25 was unjust while if yours was just, that of the Thirty was unjust; for it was not as answerable for some other acts that they were banished from the city, but simply for these. [58] It ought therefore to be a matter for the deepest resentment that Pheidon, after being chosen to reconcile and restore you, joined in the same courses as Eratosthenes and, working on the same plan, was ready enough to injure the superior members of his party on your account, but unwilling to restore the city to you who were in unjust exile: he went to Lacedaemon, and urged them to march out, insinuating that the city would be falling into the hands of the Boeotians, with other statements calculated to induce them. [59] Finding that he could not achieve this,—whether because the sacred signs impeded, or because the people themselves did not desire it,—he borrowed a hundred talents for the purpose of hiring auxiliaries, and asked for Lysander to be their leader, as one who was both a strong supporter of the oligarchy and a bitter foe of the city, and who felt a special hatred towards the party of the Peiraeus. [60] Bent on our city's destruction, they hired all and sundry, and were enlisting the aid of cities and finally that of the Lacedaemonians and as many of their allies as they could prevail upon and thus they were preparing, not to reconcile, but to destroy the city, had it not been for some loyal men, to whom I bid you declare, by exacting requital from your enemies, that they no less will get your grateful reward. [61] But these facts you comprehend of yourselves, and I doubt if I need provide any witnesses. Some, however, I will; for not only am I in need of a rest, but some of you will prefer to hear the same statements from as many persons as possible.“Witnesses” [62] By your leave, I will inform you also about Theramenes, as briefly as I can. I request you to listen, both in my own interest, and in that of the city; and one thing let no one imagine,—that I am accusing Theramenes when it is Eratosthenes who is on his trial. For I am told that he will plead in defence that he was that man's friend, and took part in the same acts. [63] Why, I suppose, if he had been in the government with Themistocles he would have been loud in claiming that he worked for the construction of the walls,26 when he claims that he worked with Theramenes for their demolition? For I do not see that there is any parity of merit between them. The one constructed the walls against the wish of the Lacedaemonians, whereas the other demolished them by beguilement of the citizens. [64] Thus the reverse of what was to be expected has overtaken the city. For the friends of Theramenes deserved no less to perish with him, except such as might be found acting in opposition to him: but here I see them referring their defence to him, and we have his associates attempting to win credit as though he had been the author of many benefits, and not of grievous injuries. [65] He, first of all, was chiefly responsible for the former oligarchy,27 by having prompted your choice of the government of the Four Hundred. His father, who was one of the Commissioners,28 was active in the same direction, while he himself, being regarded as a strong supporter of the system, was appointed general by the party. [66] So long as he found favour, he showed himself loyal; but when he saw Peisander, Callaeschrus and others getting in advance of him, and your people no longer disposed to hearken to them, immediately his jealousy of them, combined with his fear of you, threw him into co-operation with Aristocrates. [67] Desiring to be reputed loyal to your people, he accused Antiphon and Archeptolemus, his best friends, and had them put to death; and such was the depth of his villainy that, to make credit with those men,29 he enslaved you, while also, to make credit with you, he destroyed his friends. [68] Held in favour and the highest estimation, he who by his own choice offered to save the city, by his own choice destroyed it, asserting that he had discovered a capital and most valuable expedient. He undertook to arrange a peace without giving any hostages or demolishing the walls or surrendering the ships: he would tell nobody what it was, but bade them trust him. [69] And you, men of Athens, while the Council of the Areopagus were working for your safety, and many voices were heard in opposition to Theramenes, were aware that, though other people keep secrets to baffle the enemy, he refused to mention amongst his own fellow citizens what he was going to tell the enemy: yet nevertheless you entrusted to him your country, your children, your wives and yourselves. [70] Not one of the things that he undertook did he perform, but was so intent on his object of subduing and crippling the city that he induced you to do things which none of the enemy had ever mentioned nor any of the citizens had expected: under no compulsion from the Lacedaemonians, but of his own accord, he promised them the dismantling of the Peiraeus walls and the subversion of the established constitution; for well he knew that, if you were not utterly bereft of your hopes, you would be quick to retaliate upon him. [71] Finally, gentlemen, he kept the Assembly from meeting until the moment mentioned by the enemy had been carefully watched for by him, and he had sent for Lysander's ships from Samos, and the enemy's forces were quartered in the town. [72] And now, with matters thus arranged, and in the presence of Lysander, Philochares and Miltiades,30 they called the Assembly to a debate on the constitution, when no orator could either oppose them or awe them with threats, while you, instead of choosing the course most advantageous to the city, could only vote in favour of their views. [73] Theramenes arose, and bade you entrust the city to thirty men, and apply the system propounded by Dracontides.31 But you, not withstanding your awkward plight, showed by your uproar that you would not do as he proposed for you realized that you had to choose between slavery and freedom in the Assembly that day. [74] Theramenes, a gentlemen （I shall cite your own selves as witnesses to this）, said that he recked naught of your uproar, since he knew of many Athenians who were promoting the same kind of scheme as himself, and that his advice had the approval of Lysander and the Lacedaemonians. After him Lysander arose and said, when he had spoken at some length, that he held you guilty of breaking the truce, and that it must be a question, not of your constitution, but of your lives, if you refused to do as Theramenes demanded. [75] Then all the good citizens in the Assembly, perceiving the plot that had been hatched for their compulsion, either remained there and kept quiet, or took themselves off, conscious at least of this,—that they had voted nothing harmful to the city. But some few, of base nature and noxious counsels, raised their hands in favour of the commands that had been given. [76] For the order had been passed to them that they were to elect ten men whom Theramenes indicated, ten more whom the overseers, just appointed, should demand, and ten from amongst those present. They were so aware of your weakness, and so sure of their own power, that they knew beforehand what would be transacted in the Assembly. [77] For this you should rely, not on my word, but on that of Theramenes; since everything that I have mentioned was stated by him in his defence before the Council,32 when he reproached the exiles with the fact that they owed their restoration to him, and not to any consideration shown by the Lacedaemonians, and reproached also his partners in the government with this,—that although he had been himself responsible for all that had been transacted in the manner that I have described, he was treated in this fashion,—he who had given them many pledges by his actions, and to whom they were plighted by their oaths. [78] And it is for this man, responsible as we find him for all these and other injuries and ignominies, late as well as early, great as well as small, that they33 are going to have the audacity to proclaim their friendship; for Theramenes, who has suffered death, not as your champion, but as the victim of his own baseness, and has been justly punished under the oligarchy—he had already caused its ruin—as he would justly have been under democracy. Twice over34 did he enslave you, despising what was present,35 and longing for what was absent,36 and, while giving them the fairest name,37 setting himself up as instructor in most monstrous acts. [79]

Well, I have dealt sufficiently with Theramenes in my accusation. You now have reached the moment in which your thoughts must have no room for pardon or for pity; when you must punish Eratosthenes and his partners in power. You should not show your superiority to the city's foes in your fighting merely to show your inferiority to your own enemies in your voting. [80] Nor must you feel more gratitude to them for what they say that they mean to do than anger for what they have done; nor, while taking your measures against the Thirty in their absence,38 acquit them in their presence; nor in your own rescue be more lax than fortune who has delivered these men into the hands of the city. [81]

Such is the accusation against Eratosthenes and those friends of his, on whom he will fall back in his defence, as his abettors in these practices. Yet it is an unequal contest between the city and Eratosthenes: for whereas he was at once accuser and judge of the persons brought to trial, we to-day are parties engaged in accusation and defence. [82] And whereas these men put people to death untried who were guilty of no wrong, you think fit to try according to law the persons who destroyed the city, and whose punishment by you, even if unlawfully devised, would still be inadequate to the wrongs that they have committed against the city. For what would they have to suffer, if their punishment should be adequate to their actions? [83] If you put them and their children to death, should we sufficiently punish them for the murder of our fathers, sons and brothers whom they put to death untried? Or again, if you confiscated their material property, would this be compensation either to the city for all that they have taken from her, or to individuals for the houses that they pillaged? [84] Since therefore, whatever you might do, you could not exact from them an adequate penalty, would it not be shameful of you to disallow any possible sort of penalty that a man might desire to exact from these persons?

But, I believe, he would have the audacity for anything, when he has come here today, before judges who are no other than the very persons who have been maltreated, to submit his defence to the actual witnesses of the man's own villainy: so profound is either the contempt that he has conceived for you or the confidence that he has placed in others. [85] For both possibilities you ought to be on the watch, reflecting that, as they would have been unable to do what they did without the cooperation of others, so they would not now have ventured into court unless they expected to be saved by those same persons who have come here, not to support these men, but in the belief that there will be a general indemnity alike for their past actions and for whatever they may want to do in the future, if you let slip from your grasp the authors of our direst misery. [86] But you may well wonder, besides, whether those who intend to take their part will petition you in the character of loyal gentlemen, making out that their own merit outweighs the villainy of these men,—though I could have wished them as zealous for the salvation of the State as these men were for its destruction, or whether they will rely on their skilful oratory for putting in a defence and making out that the actions of their friends are estimable. Yet on your behalf not one of them has ever attempted to mention merely your just rights. [87]

Now it is worth observing how the witnesses, in testifying for these men, accuse themselves: they take you to be singularly forgetful and simple, if they believe that by means of you, the people, they will save the Thirty with impunity, when owing to Eratosthenes and his partners in power it was dangerous even to conduct funerals of the dead. [88] Yet these men, if they escape, will be able again to destroy the city; whereas those whom they destroyed, having lost their lives, can no longer look for satisfaction from their enemies. Then is it not monstrous that the friends of those who have been unjustly put to death were destroyed with them, and yet the very men who destroyed the city will have many people, I imagine, to conduct their funerals, since so many are making efforts to shield them? [89] Moreover, I am sure it was far easier to speak in opposition to them on the subject of your sufferings than it is now in defence of what they have done. We are told, indeed, that of the Thirty Eratosthenes has done the least harm, and it is claimed that on this ground he should escape; but is it not felt that for having committed more offences against you than all the other Greeks he ought to be destroyed? [90] It is for you to show what view you take of those practices. If you condemn this man, you will declare your indignation at the things that have been done; but if you acquit him, you will be recognized as aspirants to the same conduct as theirs, and you will be unable to say that you are carrying out the injunctions of the Thirty, [91] since nobody today is compelling you to vote against your judgement. So I counsel you not to condemn yourselves by acquitting them. Nor should you suppose that your voting is in secret for you will make your judgement manifest to the city. [92]

But before I step down, I desire to recall a few facts to the minds of both parties that of the town and that of the Peiraeus—in order that you may take warning from the disasters brought upon you through the agency of these men, before you give your vote. In the first place, all you of the town party should consider that you were so oppressed by the rule of these men that you were compelled to wage against your brothers, your sons and your fellow-citizens a strange warfare in which your defeat has given you equal rights with the victors, whereas your victory would have made you the slaves of these men. [93] They have enlarged their private establishments by means of their public conduct, while you find your's reduced by your warfare against each other: for they did not permit you to share their advantages, though they compelled you to share their ill-fame; and they carried disdain so far that, instead of enlisting your fidelity by a communication of their benefits, they thought to ensure your sympathy by a partnership in their scandals. [94] In return, now that you feel secure, go to the limit of your powers, on your own behalf as on that of the Peiraeus party, in taking your vengeance. Reflect that in these men you found the most villainous of rulers; reflect that you now have the best men with you in tenure of our civic rights, in fighting the enemy, and in deliberating on affairs of State and remember the auxiliaries39 whom these men stationed in the Acropolis as guardians of their dominion and of your slavery. [95] I have much else to say to you, but I will say no more. And all you of the Peiraeus party, remember first the matter of the arms,—how after fighting many battles on foreign soil you were deprived of your arms, not by the enemy, but by these men, in a time of peace; and next, that you were formally banished from the city which your fathers bequeathed to you, and when you were in exile they demanded your persons from the various cities. [96] In return you should feel the same anger as when you were exiles, and remember besides the other injuries that you suffered from these men, who with violent hands snatched some from the market-place, and some from the temples, and put them to death; while others they tore from their children, their parents and their wives, and compelled to self-slaughter, and then did not even allow them to be given the customary burial, conceiving their own authority to be proof against the vengeance of Heaven. [97] As many as escaped death encountered danger in many places, and wandered to many cities, and were banished from each refuge: in want of subsistence, having left behind you your children either in your native land, now turned hostile, or else on foreign soil, you came, despite many adversities, to the Peiraeus. Beset by many great perils, you proved yourselves men of true valor, and liberated one party while restoring the other to their native land. [98] If you had been unfortunate, and had failed of these achievements, in your turn you would have gone into exile through fear of more afflictions like the past, and owing to the methods of these men you would have found no shelter from your wrongs in either temples or altars, where even wrongdoers are secure. Of your children, as many as were here would have been foully assaulted by these men, while those in foreign parts would have been enslaved for petty debts, cut off from all possible assistance. [99]

But I have no wish to speak of things that might have befallen, when I find myself unable to recount what these men have actually done: that is a task, not for one accuser, nor for two, but for many. Nevertheless, of zeal on my part there has been no lack in defence of the temples which these men have either sold or defiled by their presence; in defence of the city which they abased; on behalf of the arsenals, which they demolished; and on behalf of the dead, whom you were unable to protect in life, and must therefore vindicate in death. [100] I fancy that they are listening to us, and will know you by the vote that you give; they will feel that those of you who acquit these men will have passed sentence of death on them, while those who inflict the merited penalty will have acted as their avengers. I will here conclude my accusation. You have heard, you have seen, you have suffered; you have them: give judgement.

1 From Syracuse.

2 i.e., his sons, Polemarchus, Lysias and Euthydemus.

3 Two of the Thirty.

4 Where Lysias and his brother carried on the manufacture of arms.

5 A stater of Cyzicus was a coin equal to 28 Attic drachmae, and a Persian daric was one of slightly less value.

6 Two of the Thirty.

7 The front door or gate on the street, opening into the courtyard.

8 Probably these divided the courtyard from the inner court, the inner court from the garden, and the garden from the back street.

9 Referring to the expensive duty, imposed on wealthy citizens, of equipping a chorus for a dramatic performance.

10 Property-taxes were levied in times of war or other emergency.

11 There was risk of pollution in addressing an unpurified murderer; cf. Aesch. Eum. 448; Eur. Orest. 75.

12 After such opposition, they would surely test him by ordering him to arrest a citizen of standing.

13 i.e., he could have let him escape there without any breach of the orders of the Thirty; but the people feel anger even against those who sought their victims indoors, where there was little possibility of conniving at their escape.

14 By stating that he spoke against it.

15 At Arginusae, 406 B.C.

16 It was suspected that both at Arginusae and at Aegospotami members of the oligarchic party had been working for the defeat of Athens by Sparta.

17 411 B.C.

18 The battle of Aegospotami, in 405 B.C.

19 In imitation of the “Ephors,” who were the five chief magistrates of Sparta.

20 i.e., the accomplices of Eratosthenes.

21 i.e., the extremists led by Critias, and the moderates led by Theramenes.

22 In the autumn of 404 B.C. Phyle commanded the road from Thebes to Athens, about twelve miles from the latter.

23 An illegality like that of the condemnation of the generals after Arginusae. The law required that each accused person should be voted on separately.

24 The ten chief magistrates appointed after the expulsion of the Thirty to arrange terms with Thrasybolus and the democrats; but they only tried to win credit with Sparta.

25 The members of the court are treated as representatives of the popular cause.

26 i.e., how eagerly he would have claimed participation in the great work of Themistocles, if he is now to seek shelter even in the discredit of helping Theramenes to destroy it!

27 After the disaster in Sicily, 412 B.C.

28 Ten persons specially appointed to revise the constitution.

29 i.e., the oligarchs.

30 These last two shared with Lysander the command of the Spartan fleet.

31 Who himself became one of the Thirty.

32 When he was accused by Critias, because of his moderate counsels, of being a traitor to the policy of the Thirty.

33 i.e., people who speak in his favor.

34 First by supporting the Four Hundred, and then by joining the Thirty.

35 Democracy.

36 Oligarchy.

37 i.e., his pretext of “government by the best.”

38 At Eleusis.

39 The guard of 700 mercenary troops sent in by Sparta to assist the Thirty.

It is the duty of you all, gentlemen of the jury, to avenge the men who were put to death as supporters of your democracy, and it is also my duty in particular; for Dionysodorus was my brother-in-law and cousin. It happens, therefore, that I share with your democracy the same settled animosity against the defendant, Agoratus; the acts that he has committed are of a kind to give me good reason to hate him today, and justification to you for the penalty which, by Heaven's will, you are to impose on him. [2] For Dionysodorus, my brother-in-law, and many others whose names you shall be duly told,—all loyal friends of your democracy,—were done to death by him in the time of the Thirty, through his act in informing against them. By this conduct he inflicted not only grievous losses on me and each of their relatives as individuals, but serious injuries—so I consider—on the whole city at large, by depriving it of men of that character. [3] I therefore, gentlemen, consider it an act of justice and piety in all of you as well as myself to take vengeance as far as each of us is able; and I think we should stand better both with the gods and with mankind if we did so. You must hear the whole of the circumstances, gentlemen, from the beginning, [4] in order that you may know, first, in what manner your democracy was dissolved, and by whom; second, in what manner those men were done to death by Agoratus; and further, what injunction they gave when they were about to die. For when you have been accurately informed of all these things you will with the more pleasure and piety condemn this man Agoratus. I shall therefore start my relation at a point from which it will be easiest both for me to explain and for you to understand. [5]

When your ships had been destroyed1 and the resources of the city had been enfeebled, the ships of the Lacedaemonians arrived soon after at the Peiraeus, and negotiations for peace were made at once with the Lacedaemonians. [6] At this moment those who desired to have a revolution in the State were busy with their plots, conceiving that they had found an excellent opportunity, and that this was the very moment for them to arrange the government according to their own desire. [7] The only obstacles that they saw in their path were the leaders of the popular party and the generals and commanders. These they consequently sought to clear out of their way by fair means or foul, in order that they might achieve their ends with ease. So they began with an attack on Cleophon2 in the following manner. [8] When the first Assembly was held on the question of peace, and the emissaries of the Lacedaemonians stated the terms on which the Lacedaemonians were prepared to make peace,—on condition that the Long Walls were demolished, each to the extent of ten stades,—you then refused, men of Athens, to stomach what you had heard as to the demolition of the walls, and Cleophon arose and protested on behalf of you all that by no means could the thing be done. [9] After that Theramenes, who was plotting against your democracy, arose and said that, if you would appoint him an ambassador to treat for peace with a free hand, he would arrange that there should be neither a breach made in the walls nor any other abasement of the city; and that he thought he would contrive even to get from the Lacedaemonians some additional boon for the city. [10] You were persuaded, and appointed as an ambassador with a free hand the man whom in the previous year, after his election to the generalship, you had rejected on his scrutiny,3 because you judged him disloyal to your democracy. [11] Well, he went to Lacedaemon and stayed there a long time, though he had left you here in a state of siege, and knew that your population was in desperate straits, as owing to the war and its distresses the majority must be in want of the necessaries of life. But he thought that, if he should reduce you to the condition to which he in fact reduced you, you would be only too glad to make peace on any sort of terms. [12] The others remained here, with the design of subverting the democracy: they brought Cleophon to trial, on the pretext that he did not go to the camp for his night's rest, but really because he had spoken on your behalf against the destruction of the walls. So they packed a jury for his trial, and these promoters of oligarchy appeared before the court and had him put to death on that pretext. [13] Theramenes arrived later from Lacedaemon. Then some of the generals and commanders—among them Strombichides4 and Dionysodorus, and some other citizens, who were loyal to you, as indeed they showed later—went to him and protested strongly. [14] For he had brought to us a peace whose nature we had learnt through the lessons of experience, since we had lost a great number of worthy citizens, and had ourselves been banished by the Thirty. Instead of a breach of ten stades' length in the Long Walls, its terms required the razing of the Long Walls in their entirety; and instead of his contriving to get some additional boon for the city, we were to surrender our ships and dismantle the wall around the Peiraeus. [15] These men perceived that, although nominally we had the promise of peace, in actual fact it was the dissolution of the democracy, and they refused to authorize such a proceeding: their motive was not pity, men of Athens, for the walls that were to come down, or regret for the fleet that was to be surrendered to the Lacedaemonians,—for they had no closer concern in these than each one of you,— [16] but they could see that this would be the means of subverting your democracy; nor were they lacking, as some declare, in eagerness for the conclusion of peace, but they desired to arrange a better peace than this for the Athenian people. They believed that they would be able to do it, and they would have succeeded, had they not been destroyed by this man Agoratus. [17] Theramenes and the others who were intriguing against you took note of the fact that there were some men proposing to prevent the subversion of the democracy and to make a stand for the defence of freedom; so they resolved, before the Assembly met to consider the peace, to involve these men first in calumnious prosecutions, in order that there should be none to take up the defence of your people at the meeting. Now, let me tell you the scheme that they laid. [18] They persuaded Agoratus here to act as informer against the generals and commanders; not that he was their accomplice, men of Athens, in anyway,—for I presume they were not so foolish and friendless that for such important business they would have called in Agoratus, born and bred a slave, as their trusty ally; they rather regarded him as a serviceable informer. Their desire was that he could seem to inform unwillingly, instead of willingly, so that the information should appear more trustworthy. [19] But he gave it willingly, as I think you will perceive for yourselves from what has since occurred. For they sent into the Council Theocritus, the man called “the son of Elaphostictus5”: this Theocritus was a comrade and intimate of Agoratus. The Council which held session before the time of the Thirty had been corrupted, and its appetite for oligarchy, as you know, was very keen. [20] For proof of it you have the fact that the majority of that Council had seats in the subsequent Council under the Thirty. And what is my reason for making these remarks to you? That you may know that the decrees issued by that Council were all designed, not in loyalty to you, but for the subversion of your democracy, and that you may study them as thus exposed. [21] Theocritus entered this Council, and behind closed doors he informed them that certain persons were combining to oppose the system then being instituted. He declined, however, to give their several names, as he was bound by the same oaths as they were, and there were others who would give the names: he would never do it himself. [22] Yet, if his information was not laid by arrangement, surely the Council could have compelled Theocritus to give the names, instead of laying the information with no names given. But in fact, here is the decree that they voted6:—“Decree” [23]

Now when this decree had been passed, the councillors appointed for the purpose went down to the Peiraeus to find Agoratus: they lighted on him in the market, and sought to take him off. On the spot were Nicias, Nicomenes and some others, who, seeing that the business was not going very successfully in the city, refused to allow Agoratus to be taken: they were for releasing him and giving bail, and undertook to produce him before the Council. [24] The councillors, having duly noted the names of those who tendered bail and stopped the arrest, went off to town. Then Agoratus and his sureties seated themselves at the altar on Munichia.7 Seated there, they debated the question of what should be done. The sureties and everyone else were of opinion that they should get Agoratus out of the way as quickly as possible, and having brought two vessels alongside they begged him at all costs to quit Athens, [25] and said that they would themselves accompany him on the voyage until affairs should get settled; they argued that if he were brought up before the Council he would be put to the torture, and would perhaps be compelled to give the names of such Athenians as might be suggested by those who were bent on working some mischief in the city. [26] Although they thus entreated him, and had provided vessels, and were ready themselves to accompany him on the voyage, this man Agoratus refused to take their advice. And yet, Agoratus, unless there had been some prearrangement with you, such as to assure you that you would come to no harm, how could you have failed to make off, when there were vessels provided, and your sureties were ready to accompany you on the voyage? It was still possible for you: the Council had not yet got you in their hands. [27] Nay, indeed, you were not in nearly so good a case as your friends: in the first place, they were Athenians, and so were not in fear of being tortured; and in the second, they were ready to resign their own native land and go on the voyage with you, because they felt that there was more to be gained by this than by your unjust destruction of a large number of good citizens. But you, first of all, were in danger of being tortured if you stayed where you were; and secondly, you would not have been parting from your own native land. [28] So in every view it was more to your interest to go on a voyage than it was to theirs, unless you had something to give you assurance. But now you pretend that you acted unwillingly, though you willingly put to death a large number of good Athenians. To show how all that I have recounted was done by prearrangement I have witnesses; and the very decree of the Council will testify against you.“”“Decree” [29]

Now when this decree had been passed, and the councillors had arrived at Munichia, Agoratus of his own free will arose from the altar: yet he now says that he was taken away by force. [30] When they were brought up before the Council, Agoratus deposed first the names of his sureties, then those of the generals and commanders, and then those of some other citizens. This was the beginning of the whole trouble. That he deposed the names, I think he himself will admit: failing that, I shall convict him as taken in the act. So answer me.“Interrogation” [31]

Now, they wanted him, gentlemen of the jury, to depose the names of yet more people; so firmly determined were the Council to work some mischief that they would not believe that he had yet given them the whole truth in his accusation. Well, he willingly deposed against all those men, with no compulsion upon him. [32] When the Assembly met in the theater at Munichia, some were so extremely anxious to have information laid before the people also in regard to the generals and commanders—as to the others, it was enough to have had it laid before the Council only—that they brought him up there also, before the people. Now answer me, Agoratus: you will not, I suppose, deny what you did in the presence of all the Athenians.“Interrogation” [33]

He admits it himself; but however, the decrees of the people shall be read to you.“Decrees”

That this man Agoratus deposed the names of those men, both before the Council and before the people, and that he is their murderer, I believe you understand well enough. My further point, that he was the author of all the city's troubles, and does not deserve to be pitied by anybody, I think I can make plain to you in summary fashion. [34] For it was just when those persons had been arrested and imprisoned that Lysander sailed into your harbors, that your ships were surrendered to the Lacedaemonians, that the walls were demolished, that the Thirty were established, and that every conceivable misery befell the city. [35] And then, as soon as the Thirty were established, they promptly brought these men to trial before the Council; whereas the people had decreed that it should be “before the court of two thousand.”8 Please read the decree.“Decrees” [36]

Now if they had been tried before the proper court, they would have easily escaped harm; for by that time you were all apprised of the evil plight of the city, though you were unable at that stage to be of further service to her. But as it was, they were brought before the Council which sat under the Thirty.9 And the trial was conducted in a manner that you yourselves well know: [37] the Thirty were seated on the benches which are now the seats of the presiding magistrates; two tables were set before the Thirty, and the vote had to be deposited, not in urns, but openly on these tables,—the condemning vote on the further one10—so what possible chance of escape had any of them? [38] In a word, all those who had entered that Council chamber for their trial were condemned to death: not one was acquitted, except this man Agoratus; him they let off, as being a “benefactor.” And in order that you may know of the large number done to death by this man, I propose to read you their names.“Names” [39]

Now, when sentence of death, gentlemen, had been passed on them, and they had to die, each of them sent for his sister, or his mother, or his wife, or any female relative that he had, to see them in the prison, in order that they might take the last farewell of their people before they should end their days. [40] In particular, Dionysodorus sent for my sister—she was his wife—to see him in the prison. On receiving the message she came, dressed in a black cloak11 [41] as was natural in view of the sad fate that had befallen her husband. In the presence of my sister, Dionysodorus, after disposing of his personal property as he thought fit, referred to this man Agoratus as responsible for his death, and charged me and Dionysius his brother here, [42] and all his friends to execute his vengeance upon Agoratus; and he charged his wife, believing her to be with child by him, that if she should bear a son she should tell the child that Agoratus had taken his father's life, and should bid him execute his father's vengeance on the man for his murder. To show the truth of what I state, I will produce witnesses to these facts.“Witnesses” [43]

So then these persons, men of Athens, lost their lives through the depositions of Agoratus. But after the Thirty had cleared them out of their way, you know well enough, I imagine, what a multitude of miseries next befell the city; and for all of them this man, by taking those people's lives, was responsible. [44] It gives me pain, indeed, to recall the calamities that have befallen the city, but it is a necessity, gentlemen of the jury, at the present moment, so that you may know how richly Agoratus deserves your pity! For you know the character and number of the citizens who were brought away from Salamis,12 and the way in which they were destroyed by the Thirty. You know what a great number of the people of Eleusis shared that calamity. [45] You remember also our people here who were haled to prison on account of private enmities; and who, having done no harm to the city, were compelled to perish by the most shameful, the most infamous, of deaths. Some left elderly parents behind them, who were expecting to be supported in their old age by their own children and, when they should end their days, to be laid by them in the grave; others left sisters unwedded, and others little children who still required much tendance. [46] What sort of feelings, gentlemen, do you think are theirs towards this man, or what kind of vote would they give, if it rested with them, when by his act they have been deprived of their best comforts? You recollect, again, how the walls were demolished, the ships surrendered to the enemy, the arsenals destroyed, our Acropolis occupied by the Lacedaemonians, and the whole strength of the city crippled, so that our city was sunk to a level with the smallest in the world! [47] And besides all this, you lost your private possessions and finally, at one swoop, you were all expelled by the Thirty from your native land. Impressed with these perils, those loyal citizens, gentlemen, refused their assent to the conditions of peace, [48] and you, Agoratus, because they sought to do the State some service, brought about their death by laying information that they were intriguing against our democracy; and you are responsible for all the troubles that have befallen the city. So now let each of you remember the misfortunes caused both to individuals and to the common weal of the city, and take vengeance on their author. [49]

I am wondering myself, gentlemen, what he will be bold enough to say to you in his defence. For he must show that he did not lay information against these men, and so is not responsible for their death; but this he could never contrive to show. [50] In the first place, we have as witnesses against him the decrees issued by the Council, and that of the people, stating expressly—“Decree“in regard to those whom Agoratus has denounced.”” In the second place, the judgement passed on him when he was acquitted under the Thirty says expressly—“DECISION“in as much as his report has been approved as true.”” Read them, please.“Decrees”“Decision”“” [51]

Well then, that he did not make the deposition, he can find no means of showing; he must therefore prove that he was justified in giving that information, because he saw them criminally working against the interest of your people. But he will not attempt to show this either, I believe. For, I presume, if it had been the people of Athens on whom they had inflicted some injury, the Thirty would never, in fear of the people's rule being subverted, have put them to death to vindicate the cause of the people; no, I conceive they would have done very much the opposite. [52]

But perhaps he will say that he committed all these wrongful acts against his will. My own opinion, gentlemen, is that, however much against his will a man may have done you a wrong so great that it cannot be exceeded, this is no reason why you should not protect yourselves. And then, there are some further facts that you must remember: it was open to this man Agoratus, before he was brought up at the Council, and while he was seated at the altar in Munichia, to escape in safety; for vessels had been provided, and his sureties were ready to depart with him. [53] And indeed, sir, had you taken their advice and consented to sail away with your friends, neither willingly nor unwillingly would you have taken the lives of so many Athenians. But the fact is that, seduced by certain persons who then made it worth your while, you had only to mention the names of the generals and commanders, and you could count on obtaining a handsome reward from them. So I see no reason there for your receiving any indulgence from us, since those men received none either from you, when you took their lives. [54] And Hippias of Thasos, and Xenophon of Curium,13 who were summoned by the Council on the same charge as this man, were put to death,—the one, Xenophon, after suffering on the rack, the other, Hippias, in the manner … 14; because in the eyes of the Thirty they did not deserve to be saved,—they had not destroyed one Athenian! But Agoratus was let off, because in their eyes he had done what was most agreeable to them. [55]

I am told that he attributes these depositions in part to Menestratus. But the affair of Menestratus was like this: Menestratus was informed against by Agoratus, and was arrested and put in prison. Hagnodorus of Amphitrope,15 a fellow townsman of Menestratus, was a kinsman of Critias, one of the Thirty. Well, when the Assembly was being held in the theater at Munichia, this man, with the double aim of saving the life of Menestratus and of causing, by means of depositions, the destruction of as many people as possible, brought him before the people, when they contrived to give him impunity under the following decree.“Decree” [56]

As soon as this decree had been passed, Menestratus turned informer, and added some more names of citizens to those already deposed. The Thirty, of course, let him off as they did Agoratus here, accepting his report as true: but you long afterwards had him before you in court as an actual murderer, and justly condemned him to death; you handed him over to the executioner, and he suffered death on the plank.16 [57] Yet, if that man was put to death, surely Agoratus will be put to death with justice; for since he deposed against Menestratus he is responsible for his death, while, as to those who were deposed against by Menestratus, who is more responsible than the man who placed him under the necessity of such a step? [58]

And his behavior was, I consider, quite unlike that of Aristophanes of Cholleis,17 who went surety for him at that time, provided the vessels at Munichia, and was ready to accompany him on the voyage. Thus, so far as it lay with him, you were saved, and then you would neither have destroyed any Athenian nor have brought your own self into such serious dangers. [59] But no: you not only had the face to depose against your own deliverer, but by making your deposition you sent both him and your other sureties to their death. Some, indeed, desired that Aristophanes should be put to the torture, as one who was not of pure Athenian stock, and they prevailed on the people to pass the following decree.“Decree” [60]

Well, after that the persons who then had control of affairs came to Aristophanes and appealed to him to save himself by a denunciation, and not to run the risk of the extreme penalty by standing his trial on the count of alien birth. But he said—“Never!” Such was his loyalty both to the men who had been imprisoned and to the Athenian people that he chose to suffer death rather than denounce and destroy anyone unjustly. [61] So this was the character shown by that man, even when you were bringing him to destruction; and you, when you knew nothing against those persons, but had been seduced with the promise to you of a share in the government then being established if they should be destroyed, made your deposition and sent to their death a large number of good Athenians. [62]

But I wish now, gentlemen of the jury, to represent to you the character of the men of whom Agoratus has bereft you. Had they been merely a few, one might mention them to you separately; but, as it is, I must cover them all in one brief account. Some had served you several times as generals, and then had handed on the city with added greatness to their successors in authority; [63] some had held other high offices, and had borne the expense of many naval equipments: never before had they met with any disgraceful censure from you. Some of them survived, by having got away in safety; though this man sent them to their death none the less, and they were condemned to die: but fortune and providence delivered them. They fled the city, instead of being arrested and awaiting their trial; they have returned from the exile of Phyle, and are honored by you as worthy men. [64]

Such, you see, was the character of these men whom Agoratus either did to death or sent into exile from the city. And who, then, is he? You must know that he is a slave born and bred, so that you may know what manner of man it was that grossly maltreated you. For the defendant's father was Eumares, and this Eumares was the property of Nicocles and Anticles. Come forward, please, witnesses.“Witnesses”18 [65]

Now Agoratus, gentlemen, had three brothers. One of them, the eldest, was caught in Sicily making traitorous signals to the enemy, and by Lamachus's order he was executed on the plank. The second abducted a slave from our city to Corinth, and was taken in the act of abducting a girl from a household there: he was cast into prison and put to death. [66] The third was arrested here by Phaenippides as a clothes stealer, and you tried him in your court: you condemned him to death, and consigned him to execution on the plank. The truth of my statements will, I think, be admitted even by this man himself, and we shall produce witnesses to support them.“Witnesses” [67]

Now, to tell of all the other injuries and infamies, gentlemen, which have been the practice of this man and his brothers would be a lengthy task. As to his trade of slander in all the private suits that he brought, or in the various impeachments and depositions that he made, there is no need for me to speak in detail. To sum the whole, you all in the Assembly, and likewise in the law-court, convicted him of venal slander and made him pay a fine of ten thousand drachmae; [68] so that this point has been sufficiently attested by your whole body. Then again, he attempted, with a character like that, to debauch and defile free-born wives of our citizens, and was taken in adultery; and for that the penalty is death. Call witnesses to the truth of my words.“Witnesses” [69]

Then is it not clearly a duty upon you all to convict this man? For if each of the brothers was thought deserving of death for a single offence, surely the man who, both publicly against the city and privately against each of you, has committed many offences, for each of which the penalty under our laws is death, must by all means be condemned to death by you. [70]

He will say, gentlemen, attempting to deceive you, that in the time of the Four Hundred19 he killed Phrynichus,20 and in reward for this, he asserts, the people made him an Athenian citizen. But he lies, gentlemen. For neither did he kill Phrynichus, nor did the people make him an Athenian citizen. [71] It was Thrasybulus of Calydon and Apollodorus of Megara, gentlemen, who combined in a plot against Phrynichus: they lighted on him as he was out walking, and Thrasybulus struck Phrynichus, knocking him down with the blow; but Apollodorus did not touch him. Meanwhile an outcry arose, and they ran off and disappeared. But Agoratus here was neither invited to join them nor was present at the deed, nor does he know anything of the matter. The truth of my statement will be shown you by the decree itself.“Decree”21 [72]

That he did not kill Phrynichus is clear from the decree itself: for nowhere do we find “that Agoratus be an Athenian,” as in the case of Thrasybulus. If, however, he had killed Phrynichus, he ought to appear as having been made an Athenian in the inscription on the same tablet as Thrasybulus does; though some do contrive, by bribing the proposer, to have their own names added to the tablet as “benefactors.” The truth of my words will be proved by this decree.“Decree” [73]

But yet, this man had so much contempt for you that although he was not an Athenian he took his seat in the law-court, and in the Assembly, and made impeachments of every conceivable kind, giving in his name with the addition—“of Anagyra.22” And besides, I have further good evidence against his having killed Phrynichus,—an act for which he claims to have been made an Athenian: this Phrynichus established the Four Hundred; after his death, most of the Four Hundred fled. [74] Do you then believe that the Thirty and the Council in session at that time, who were themselves all members of the Four Hundred who had fled, would have let off the slayer of Phrynichus when they had hold of him, instead of taking vengeance on him for Phrynichus and the exile they had suffered? [75] In my opinion, they would have taken vengeance on him. Now, if he is pretending, as I assert,to be the slayer of Phrynichus when he is not, he is guilty there; while if you, sir, dispute this, and declare that you did kill Phrynichus, it is evident that you must have done yet greater injuries to the Athenian people so as to redeem, in the eyes of the Thirty, the blame for Phrynichus's death. For you will never persuade anyone at all that after killing Phrynichus you would have been let off by the Thirty, unless you had inflicted great and irremediable injuries upon the Athenian people. [76] Hence, if he asserts that he killed Phrynichus, remember my words and take vengeance on this man for what he has done: if he disclaims it, ask him on what grounds he alleges that he was made an Athenian. If he fails to prove it, punish him for making use of his assumed title of Athenian to sit in both law-court and Assembly, and to bring slanderous charges against so many persons. [77]

I am told that he is concocting for his defence the plea that he went off to Phyle, and was in the party that returned from Phyle, and that this is the mainstay of his case. But the facts were as I shall relate. This man did go to Phyle; yet, could there be an example of more abject vileness? For he knew that at Phyle there were some of those who had been banished by him, and he had the face to approach them! [78] As soon as they saw him they laid hold of him and dragged him straight away to be killed in the place where they executed ordinary pirates or robbers that fell into their hands. Anytus, who was the general, said that they ought not to do that, on the ground that they were not yet in a position to punish certain of their enemies: at that moment they should rather keep quiet. If ever they returned home, they would then proceed to punish the guilty. [79] By that speech he was the cause of this man's escape at Phyle: it was necessary to obey a man in the position of general, if they were to preserve themselves. Nay, further, you will find no one who has shared either this man's table or his tent, nor did the commander assign him a place in his tribe23; to all he was a polluted person with whom they would not talk. Please call the commander.“Evidence” [80]

When they had reached their mutual agreement, and the Peiraeus party made their procession to the citadel,24 they were led by Aesimus; but there too this man showed similar audacity. For he followed along under arms, joining in the procession with the heavy-armed men to the city. [81] But when they were close to the gates, and grounded arms before entering the city, Aesimus perceived him and went up to him, seized his shield, and flung it away, with the order—“Be off, crows' meat! A murderer like you must not join in the procession to Athene.” This was the way in which he was driven off by Aesimus; and I will produce witnesses to the truth of my statement.“Witnesses” [82]

These were the real relations, gentlemen, that he had with the heavy-armed troops, both at Phyle and in the Peiraeus. Nobody would speak to him, as a known murderer, and Anytus was the cause of his escape from death. If, therefore, he makes use of his journey to Phyle as a plea in his defence, you must retort with the question whether Anytus was the cause of his escape from death when they were ready to do justice upon him, and whether Aesimus flung away his shield and forbade him to join in the procession. [83]

You must not accept that plea from him, nor this one either, if he should urge it,—that we are exacting the penalty a long time after the offence. For I do not think there is any statute of limitations25 for such crimes as his: my opinion rather is that, whether brought to his account immediately or after some time, this man must prove that he has not done the things that form the subject of the charge. [84] Let him therefore satisfy us, either that he did not cause the death of those men, or that he did so with justice because they were doing a mischief to the Athenian people. But if we are late in punishing where we ought to have punished long ago, he is a gainer by the time in which he lived illicitly, while those men have none the less suffered death by his act. [85]

I am told that he also takes his stand on the plea that the words “in the act” appear in the warrant for arrest; but this, I consider, is utter imbecility. So, without the addition of the words “in the act,” he would be liable to the arrest; but just because the words have been added, he thinks he can extricate himself! This simply amounts, it would seem, to an admission that he has killed, but has not been taken in the act; and to insist on that is to imply that, if he was not taken in the act, but did the killing, he ought therefore to escape. [86] But, in my view, the Eleven who authorized this arrest, without a thought of supporting Agoratus's plea,—on which he was even then insisting,—were quite correct in compelling Dionysius, who sought the warrant for arrest, to add the words “in the act”: surely that must be so, in dealing with a man who, first before five hundred, and then again before the whole body of the Athenians, made depositions whereby he took the lives of some of them, and thus was responsible for their death. [87] For you cannot of course suppose that “in the act” only applies to a man felled with the stroke of a club or a dagger; since, by your argument, nobody will be found to have actually killed the men against whom you deposed. For no one either struck them or assassinated them, but your deposition had the effect of compelling them to die.26 Then is not the author of their death a person caught “in the act”? Now, who can be that author but you, who made the depositions? So clearly you, who killed them, have been caught in the act. [88]

I understand that he intends to refer to the oaths and agreements,27 and will tell us that his prosecution is a violation of the oaths and agreements that we of the Peiraeus contracted with the party of the town. Well, if he takes his stand on these, he practically admits that he is a murderer: at least, he makes an objection of oaths, or agreements, or lapse of time, or the words “in the act”; but in itself the case affords him no confidence of success in his trial. [89] Your duty, gentlemen of the jury, is to reject these arguments: you must bid him direct his defence to these questions—Did he make no depositions ? Are those men not dead? Besides, I consider that the oaths and agreements in no way affect our position regarding this man. For the oaths have been taken between the parties of the town and of the Peiraeus. [90] If indeed, he was in the town while we were in the Peiraeus, the agreements would have been something for him to count upon; but the truth is that he was in the Peiraeus, like me and Dionysius and all these persons who are for punishing the man, so that we are faced with no objection there. For there was no oath taken between the men of the Peiraeus and the men of the Peiraeus. [91]

In every view, I consider, he deserves more deaths than one; for the same man who says that the people have made him one of them is found to have injured the people whom he himself calls his father, by treacherously sapping the resources that they had for advancing their greatness and strength. Therefore, just as much as the man who struck his own natural father and denied him all necessaries of life, he who robbed his adoptive father of the means that he possessed is certainly, on this one score, as provided by the law of such maltreatment, deserving of the penalty of death.28 [92]

It is the duty of you all, gentlemen, as it is of each one of us, to avenge those men. For it was their dying injunction both to us and to all their friends, that we should avenge them on this man Agoratus as their murderer, and do him, in a word, all the injury of which each of us is capable. Now, if they have manifestly done some good service to the city or your democracy, as you yourselves acknowledge, it must follow that you all are friends and intimates of theirs, so that they enjoined this on each of you no less than on us. Hence it would be impious as well as illegal for you to absolve this man Agoratus. [93] And now it is for you, men of Athens, today,—since at that moment when they were to die you were unable to come to their aid because of the embarrassments of your situation,—today, when you are able, to punish their murderer. And take heed, men of Athens, lest you commit the most abominable act of all. For if you acquit this man Agoratus, your action does not stop there, but by that same vote you condemn to death those men whom you acknowledge as your supporters. [94] By releasing the author of their death you simply decide that they have been justly put to death by him. And thus the most awful of all fates would be theirs, if those whom they charged to avenge them as their friends should support with their votes the motion of the Thirty against those men. [95] In the name of the Olympian gods, gentlemen of the jury, let neither art nor craft induce you to condemn those men to death who precisely for their many good services to you were put to death by the Thirty and by Agoratus here. Remember all the horrors, both those that smote the State as a whole and those that each of us felt in private, when those men lost their lives, and punish the author of them all. It has been made plain to you, alike from the decrees, the depositions and all the rest, that Agoratus is the author of their death. [96]

Furthermore, it behoves you to vote in opposition to the Thirty: you must therefore acquit the men whom they condemned to death; and you must convict those whom they did not so condemn. Now, the Thirty condemned to death these men, who were your friends, and these you ought to acquit. Agoratus they acquitted, because he was found zealous for their destruction: him you ought to convict. [97] If therefore, you vote in opposition to the Thirty, first of all, you are not supporting your enemies with your votes; next, you will have avenged your own friends; and last, you will he held by all the world to have given a just and a pious vote.

1 At Aegospotami, 405 B.C.

2 A democratic and anti-Spartan orator.

3 An examination of officers and magistrates between their election in spring and their assumption of office after midsummer.

4 An Athenian general at the close of the Peloponnesian War; cf. Thuc. 8.15, 30, 62.

5 “Deermark;” from some birth-mark of tattoo, indicating a foreign or servile origin.

6 Ordering the arrest of Agoratus.

7 The citadel on the east side of the Peiraeus, containing an altar of Artemis.

8 Composed of four of the twelve panels, each consisting of 500 jurors, which were appointed for the formation of the ordinary courts each year. A court of so large a size was only formed for cases of special importance.

9 Cf. above, Lys. 13.20.

10 i.e., nearest to the Thirty. The text here has a short gap.

11 Some words describing another sign of mourning seem to be missing here. . . .

12 Cf. Lys. 12.52.

13 In the south of Cyprus.

14 A short gap is left in the text.

15 A township or district in the south of Attica, containing some of the silver mines.

16 This mode of execution, formerly understood to be “cudgelling to death,” seems to have been something similar to crucifixion. See Gernet et Bizos, ad loc.

17 A district on the south side of Mt. Hymettus. The point in what follows is that even his surety Aristophanes, when faced with death as a result of Agoratus's treachery, refused to save himself by denouncing good citizens.

18 §§ 67 and 68 are here placed before §§ 65 and 66, as suggested by some editors.

19 411 B.C.; cf. Lys. 12.42.

20 A prominent member of the Four Hundred; cf. Thuc. 8.92.

21 These were decrees passed by the people in gratitude to the slayers of Phrynichus, who were granted full civic rights in the form “That so-and-so be an Athenian.”

22 A district on the west coast of Attica.

23 There was one “taxiarch” for each of the ten tribes, whose ranks were formed by him.

24 i.e., to the temple of Athene on the Acropolis.

25 See note on Lys. 7.17.

26 By a draught of hemlock.

27 Providing an amnesty for all except the Thirty, the Eleven who executed their orders, and their ten commissioners in the Peiraeus.

28 § 91 appears to be a rhetorical expansion by a later hand.

I do not believe, gentlemen of the jury, that you desire to hear any excuse for the action of those who have resolved to accuse Alcibiades: for from the outset he has shown himself so unworthy of the citizenship that it is the duty of anyone, even in the absence of a personal wrong suffered at his hands, to regard him none the less as an enemy because of the general tenor of his life. [2] His offences are not slight or entitled to indulgence, nor do they offer a hope of his reform in the future: they have been committed in such a manner, and have carried villainy to such lengths, that even his enemies feel ashamed for some of the things on which he prides himself. Yet I, gentlemen, since our fathers were previously at feud, and since my long-standing sense of his rascally character has now been increased by maltreatment at his hands, will try with your aid to make him pay the penalty for all that he has done. [3] The main indictment has been sufficiently delivered by Archestratides; for he has exhibited the laws and produced witnesses to everything. But on certain points that he has omitted I will give you particular information. [4]

Now it is reasonable, gentlemen of the jury, that men who are now trying such a case for the first time since we settled the peace1 should act not merely as jurors, but in fact as law-makers. For you know well that your decision upon these cases will determine the attitude of the city towards them for all time. And it is the duty, in my opinion, alike of a loyal citizen and of a just juror to put such constructions on the laws as are likely to be of benefit to the city in the future. [5] For some are bold enough to assert that nobody can be chargeable with desertion or cowardice, since no battle has taken place; that the law merely provides for a court-martial on anyone who, from cowardice, has deserted the ranks and retreated while the rest were fighting. But the provisions of the law apply not only to such a case, but also to that of anyone who fails to appear in the infantry lines. Please read the law.“Law” [6]

You hear, gentlemen, how it covers both alike,—those who retreat to the rear during battle, and those who do not appear in the infantry lines. And consider who they are that are bound to appear. Are they not all persons who have reached the proper age? Are they not those whom the generals have enrolled? [7] I believe, gentlemen, that he is the one citizen who is liable to the full scope of the law: for he would with justice be convicted of refusing duty, because after being enrolled as a foot-soldier he did not march out with you; of desertion, because he alone of the whole force did not present himself for the formation of the ranks; and of cowardice, because, when it was his duty to share the danger with the infantry, he chose to serve in the cavalry. [8] They say, indeed, that he will resort to the defence that, since he was in the cavalry, he was doing no wrong to the State. But in my opinion you would find just cause for indignation against him in the fact that, although the law provides that anyone who serves in the cavalry without having passed his scrutiny2 shall be disfranchised, he had the audacity to serve in the cavalry without having passed his scrutiny. Now, please, read the law.“Law” [9]

This man, then, carried roguery to such a length, and was so contemptuous of you and so timorous of the enemy, so desirous of serving in the cavalry and so heedless of our laws, that he recked nought of the risks involved, and preferred the prospect of being disfranchised, having his property confiscated and being liable to all the statutory penalties, to that of taking his place with the citizens and serving as an infantryman. [10] There were others who had never before served in the infantry, but had always been cavalrymen and had inflicted many losses on the enemy: yet they did not venture to mount their horses, from fear of you and of the law. For they had shaped their plans on the prospect, not of the city's destruction, but of its deliverance, its ascendancy and its retaliation upon wrongdoers. But Alcibiades was rash enough to mount, though he is no supporter of the people, nor had seen service in the cavalry before, nor is qualified for it now, nor had passed your scrutiny: he presumed that the city would be without the power to do justice upon wrongdoers. [11] You must reflect that, if men are to be permitted to do whatever they please, it is useless to have your code of laws, your Assemblies, or your election of generals. And I wonder, gentlemen, at anyone considering it right, when a man has retired, at the approach of the enemy, from his post in the first rank to a place in the second, to convict him of cowardice, and then, if a man has appeared in the cavalry when his post was in the infantry, to grant him a pardon! [12] And besides, gentlemen, I conceive that your judgement is given, not merely with a view to the offenders, but also for the reformation of all other insubordinate persons. Now, if you punish men who are unknown, not one among the rest will be improved; for nobody will know the sentences that you have passed: but if you inflict the penalty on the most conspicuous offenders, everyone will be apprised, and so the citizens, with this example before them, will be improved. [13] Again, if you condemn this man, not only will the people of our city know, but our allies also will take notice and our enemies will be informed; and they will hold our city in much higher regard if they see that you are especially indignant at this kind of offence, and that those who are insubordinate in war obtain no pardon. [14] And reflect, gentlemen, that some of the soldiers were sick, while others lacked the necessaries of life, and that the former would have been glad to remain for treatment in their cities, and the latter to retire home and attend to their own affairs; others would have liked to serve as light-armed troops, or else to take their risk with the cavalry. [15] But still, you did not venture to desert your ranks or choose what was most agreeable to yourselves, but were far more afraid of the city's laws than of the danger of meeting the foe. All this you should remember when you give your vote today, and so make evident to all that any Athenians who do not wish to do battle with the enemy will suffer sorely at your hands. [16]

I believe, gentlemen, that on the point of law and on the actual fact they will have nothing to say; but they will stand up here to beg him off and plead with you, claiming that you ought not to convict of such utter cowardice the son of Alcibiades, since that person has been the source of so many benefits,—instead of so much harm! Nay, if you had put that man to death at this man's age, the first time that you caught him offending against you, the city would have escaped her great disasters. [17] And I feel it will be extraordinary, gentlemen, if, after condemning that person himself to death, you acquit on his account the son with guilt upon him,—this son who had not the courage himself to fight in your ranks, and whose father thought fit to march in those of the enemy. When this person, as a child, had not yet shown what kind of man he would be, he came near being handed over to the Eleven3 on account of his father's offences; and now that you are acquainted with the roguery which this man has added to his father's exploits, will you think proper to pity him on his father's account? [18] Is it not monstrous, gentlemen, that these people should be so fortunate, when taken in transgression, as to come off safe on account of their birth, while we, if we had met with the misfortune as a result of their insubordination, would be unable to retrieve a single man from the enemy even on the plea of your ancestors' high achievements? [19] And yet these have been numerous, important and advantageous to all the Greeks, and utterly unlike the conduct of these men towards the city, gentlemen of the jury. If they are more valued for trying to save their friends, clearly you on your part will be more honored for seeking to punish your enemies. [20]

And I expect you, gentlemen, if some of his relatives attempt to beg him off, to be indignant that they were not at pains to entreat him—or, having entreated, were unable to prevail on him—to do what the city enjoined, but are endeavoring to persuade you that you should not punish wrongdoers. [21] If, again, some of the magistrates come to his support, so as to make a display of their own power, and to enjoy the glory of being able to save even obvious offenders, you ought to observe, in the first place, that if everyone had shown the same character as Alcibades there would have been no need of our generals,—for they would have had nobody to lead,—and secondly, that it is much more their duty to accuse deserters from the ranks than to speak in defense of such creatures. For what hope can we have that the others will comply with the orders issued by the generals,when these lend their authority to the attempt to save the insubordinate? [22] Now my claim is this: if those who speak as intercessors for Alcibiades can prove that he has been on service in the infantry, or was a cavalryman duly approved on scrutiny, he should be acquitted; but if, for want of any justification, they demand a favor for themselves, you should remember that they are teaching you to break your oath and disobey the laws, and that their excessive zeal in the support of wrongdoers will make many people aspire to the same conduct. [23]

What surprises me most of all, gentlemen, is that any of you can think it right that Alcibiades should be saved on account of his supporters, instead of perishing on account of his villainy. And of that you ought to be told, so that you may understand how unreasonable it would be for you to acquit him on the ground that, though guilty of these offences, in all else he had shown himself a loyal citizen. For the rest of his actions would justify you in condemning him to death. [24] It is your duty to be informed of them; for you allow those speaking in defence to discourse on their own merits and on the services rendered by their ancestors, and therefore it is fair that you should listen also to accusers when they expose the many crimes that the defendants have committed against you, and the many evils that their ancestors have brought about. [25] When this man was a child, he was seen by a number of people at the house of Archedemus the Blear-eyed,4 who had embezzled not a little of your property, drinking the while he lay at length under the same cloak; he carried on his revels till daylight, keeping a mistress when he was under age, and imitating his ancestors, in the belief that he would not achieve distinction in his later years unless he could show himself an utter rascal in his youth. [26] He was sent for by Alcibiades,5 since his outrageous conduct was becoming notorious. And indeed, what ought you to think of the character of the man whose practices were such as to discredit him even in the eyes of the great ringleader in those ways? He conspired with Theotimus against his father, and betrayed Orni6 to him: but he, when he had gained possession of the stronghold, after abusing him in the flower of youth, ended by imprisoning him and holding him to ransom. But his father felt so deep a hatred of him that he declared that even though he should die he would not recover his bones. [27] When his father was dead7 Archebiades, who had become his lover, obtained his release. Not long afterwards, having diced away his fortune, he took ship at White Cliff,8 and attempted to drown his friends at sea. [28] Well, to relate all the offences that he has committed, gentlemen, either against the citizens, or against foreigners, or in his dealings with his own relations or with ordinary people, would be a lengthy affair; but Hipponicus assembled a number of witnesses9 and put away his wife, stating that this man had been entering his house, not as her brother, but as her husband. [29] And after committing offences of this sort, and being guilty of such a number of monstrous and grievous crimes, he is heedless alike of the past and of the future; when he ought to have been the most orderly of citizens, so as to excuse by his own life the offences of his father, he attempts to outrage others, as though he might succeed in imparting to his neighbors some tiny share of his own store of infamies, —and that, too, when he is the son of Alcibiades, [30] who induced the Lacedaemoniains to fortify Decelea,10 who sailed to rouse the islands to revolt, who became a promoter of mischief to our city, and who marched more often in the ranks of the enemy against his native land than those of his fellow-citizens against them! For those actions it is your duty, as it is also of those who are to come after you, to take vengeance on anyone of this family who falls into your hands. [31] Yet it is a constant habit of his to say that it is unfair, when his father on returning home received gifts from the people,11 that he should find himself unjustly discredited on account of his father's exile. But in my opinion it would be monstrous if, after depriving the father of those gifts as having been unjustly bestowed, you should acquit this man, though a wrongdoer, on the ground of good service done to the city by his father. [32]

And then, gentlemen of the jury, besides other abundant reasons for which he ought to be convicted, there is the fact that he takes your valorous conduct as a precedent to justify his own baseness. For he has the audacity to say that Alcibiades has done nothing outrageous in marching against his native land, [33] since you in your exile occupied Phyle, cut down trees and assaulted the walls, and by these acts of yours, instead of bequeathing disgrace to your children, you won honor in the eyes of all the world; as though there were no difference in the deserts of men who used their exile to march in the ranks of the enemy against their country, and those who strove for their return while the Lacedaemonians held the city! [34] And again, I think it must be obvious to all that these others sought to return that they might surrender the command of the sea to the Lacedaemonians, and gain the command of you for themselves; whereas your democracy, on its return, expelled the enemy and liberated even those of our citizens who desired to be slaves. So that there is no such parallel between the actions of the two parties as he seeks to draw. [35] But despite the many grievous disasters that are upon his head he prides himself on his father's villainy, and tells us that the man was so mighty that he has been the author of all the troubles that have befallen our city. And yet, what man is there so ignorant of his own country's affairs that cannot, if he chooses to be a villain, inform the enemy of the positions that ought to be occupied, point out the forts that are ill-guarded, instruct them in the weaknesses of the State, and indicate the allies who desire to secede?12 [36] For if during his exile it was his power that enabled him to injure the city, how was it that, having obtained his return by deceiving you and being in command of many ships of war, he had not power enough to expel the enemy from our land or to regain for you the friendship of the Chians whom he had alienated, or to do you any other useful service? [37] Thus there is no difficulty in concluding that on the score of power he had no particular advantage, but that in foul play he stood first of his fellows. For he took upon him to indicate to the Lacedaemonians the points in your affairs which he knew to be in a bad way; but, when he had the duty of holding the command, he was powerless to do them any harm. After undertaking that, for his sake, the king would provide us with money, he embezzled more than two hundred talents of our city's funds. [38] So sensible was he of his numerous offences against you that, for all his power of speech, his friends, and his acquisition of wealth, he never once ventured to come under an inquiry, but condemned himself to exile, and preferred to become a citizen of Thrace and any sort of city rather than belong to his own native land. Finally, gentlemen, he outdid his former villainy by daring, with Adeimantus, to surrender the ships to Lysander.13 [39] So, if anyone among you feels pity for those who lost their lives in the sea-fight, or is ashamed for those who were enslaved by the enemy, or resents the destruction of the walls, or hates the Lacedaemonians, or feels anger against the Thirty, he should hold this man's father responsible for all these things, and reflect that it was Alcibiades, his great-grand-father, and Megacles, his father's grandfather on the mother's side, whom your ancestors ostracized,14 both of them twice, and that the older among you have condemned his father to death. [40] Wherefore you ought now to condemn this man as one whom you have judged to be a hereditary enemy of the city, and to set neither pity nor forgiveness nor any favour above the established laws and the oaths that you have sworn. [41]

And you should ask yourselves, gentlemen, what reason you could have for sparing such men as these. Is it because, unfortunate though their public career has been, they are otherwise orderly persons, who have lived sober lives? Have not most of them been prostitutes, while some have lain with their sisters, and others have had children by their daughters; [42] others, again, have performed Mysteries, mutilated the Hermae, and committed profanity against all the gods and offences against the whole city, showing injustice and illegality alike in their public treatment of their fellow-men and in their behavior to each other, refraining from no audacity, and unversed in no outrageous practice? Indeed, there is nothing that they have been spared, or have spared. For their propensity is to be ashamed of what is honorable, and to glory in what is base. [43] It is true, gentlemen, you have acquitted ere now some persons though you held them guilty, because you supposed that they would be useful to you in the future. Well, what hope is there that the city will derive any benefit from this man, whom you will know for the worthless wretch he is, when he makes his defence, and whose villainy you have learnt from the general tenor of his life? [44] But, what is more, even if he left the city he could do you no harm, craven and pauper that he is, with no ability for business, at feud with his own folk and hated by everyone else. [45] So neither is there any reason here to be heedful of him: far rather should you make him serve as an example for all people, and particularly his friends, who refuse to do what is enjoined on them, who aspire to similar conduct, and who, misguided in their own concerns, harangue you upon yours. [46]

Now, I have made my accusation to the best of my ability. I am well aware that the rest of my hearers are wondering how I could have discovered the offences of these men with such precision, yet the accused is deriding me for having told but the smallest fraction of the crimes that lie at their door. [47] You have therefore to reckon in with what has been told the tale of what has been omitted, and to be all the more for condemning him; you must reflect that he is liable to the charge preferred, and that it is a great blessing to the State that it should be relieved of this sort of citizen. Read them15 the laws, the oaths and the charge preferred: bearing these in mind, they will vote what is just.“Laws”“Oaths”“Charge”

1 i.e., the peace of 404 B.C, which ended the Peloponnesian War.

2 Held by the Council in order to maintain a high class of manhood in the cavalry.

3 The officers appointed to execute condemned criminals.

4 A popular leader, who pressed for the prosecution of the commanders after Arginusae, 406 B.C.; cf. Aristoph. Frogs 417.

5 His father, then in exile in the Thracian Chersonese.

6 One of the residences of Alcibades in the Chersonese.

7 404 B.C.

8 On the Propontis.

9 This was the only formality required for a divorce.

10 In Attica, 413 B.C.

11 In 407 B.C., when he was welcomed back to a brief popularity on the strength of his friendship with the Persian satrap Tissaphernes.

12 Cf. the treachery of Alcibiades recorded by Thuc. 8.6.12.

13 The fact rather is that Alcibiades tried to warn the Athenian commanders of the danger of their being surprised at Aegospotami （405 b.c.）.

14 The famous Alcibiades was the son of Cleinias （son of Alcibiades, opponent of the Peisistratids, 510 b.c.）, and Deinomache （daughter of Megacles, supporter of the Peisistratid party, 486 b.c.）. The people once a year could vote for the expulsion of one citizen from the city, by writing his name on a potsherd （ὄστρακον）.

15 i.e., the jurors.

I not only request you, gentlemen of the jury, to vote what is just, but I beg the generals, as they have in all else used their authority to the great advantage of the State, to be impartial also in suits for evasion of military duty, treating prosecutor and defendant alike and not to be so intent on supporting some favorite of their own as to make every endeavor that your vote shall be given against justice. [2] Reflect how deeply aggrieved you1 would be if during your scrutiny the recorders should mount the dais to request that the vote should go against you: it would strike you as monstrous that those who ordered the suit and put the question should recommend that votes be given against some men, and not given against others. [3] What custom could be more shameful, what proceeding more monstrous, in our city than to have the magistrate making bold, in suits concerning heiresses, to implore and beseech the judges that the matter be settled as he may prefer, or to have the war-archon and the Eleven making requests, in the suits authorized by themselves, like that in the present case? [4] You ought, therefore, to have just the same feeling in regard to yourselves; you should reflect that to give your support from personal motives to a man accused of evading military service will be exactly the same as if some of these officers2 should put in a request while they are actually putting the question. [5] And consider, gentlemen, if you have not found sufficient proof that none of the commanders in the army up to that time was a supporter of Alcibiades. For if their statement3 is true, they ought to have cited Pamphilus4 for depriving the city of a horseman by taking away his horse; to have mulcted the squadron-commander for expelling Alcibiades from the squadron to the confusion of the order they had settled; and to have instructed the commander to erase his name from the roll of the infantry. [6] But in fact they did nothing of the sort: while he was in the army, they suffered him to be grossly insulted by all, and left to serve among the mounted archers5; but now that you have to do justice upon the guilty, they obligingly testify that he has taken that rank by their orders. But I say it is monstrous, gentlemen, that although the generals themselves, who have been duly elected by the people, would not dare to take command of us before they had passed their scrutiny in compliance with the laws, Alcibiades should dare to take his rank from them in violation of the laws of our city. [7] And it is monstrous also, in my opinion, gentlemen, that whereas it is not in their power to take a man at their own pleasure from the cavalrymen who have passed scrutiny, and enrol him in the infantry, it should be in their power to pass a man at their pleasure from the infantry into the cavalry without scrutiny. [8] Now, gentlemen, if they were entitled so to act, and allowed none of the many others who so desired to serve in the cavalry, you would not be justified in obliging them; but if they admit that they were not entitled to rank him as they have done, you should reflect that you have sworn to decide according to justice, and not to vote in compliance with these men; and so you ought not to have more regard for any of these suitors than for yourselves and your oaths. [9] Moreover, gentlemen, if any of you thinks the penalty a heavy one and the law too severe, he should remember that you have come here, not to legislate on these affairs, but to vote in accordance with the established laws; not to pity the guilty, but much rather to be angry with them and to be protectors of the whole State. For you know well that by punishing a few for what has been done in the past you will improve the discipline of many among those who have to face danger in the future. [10] And, gentlemen, just as this person has disregarded the State to provide for his own safety, so you should disregard him in voting what is best for the State; especially since you have sworn oaths and have to vote on Alcibiades, who, if he is able to deceive you, will go away mocking at the city. For he will show you no gratitude for the benefit covertly gained from your vote, since he repays with injury the open assistance of any of his friends. [11] You therefore, gentlemen, must have less regard for the requests of these persons than for the laws, and give the vote that is just. It has been proved that he was enrolled in the infantry, that he deserted the ranks, that despite the prohibition of the laws he served in the cavalry without passing the scrutiny, and that in respect of matters in which the laws expressly declare that neither general nor brigadier nor anyone else can override their authority he, a private person, has given himself a free hand. [12] Now I, as seeking to support my friend Archestratides, and to punish my own enemy Alcibiades, request you to give the vote that is just. You should have the same feelings in recording that vote as when you were expecting your supreme ordeal in face of the enemy.

1 The speaker now addresses the generals, who had to submit to a scrutiny on their appointment.

2 The six junior archons had charge of the text of the laws and the general supervision of the law-courts and certain classes of trials.

3 i.e., that they enroled Alcibiades in the cavalry as being favorably disposed to him.

4 Pamphilus was probably a cavalry commander.

5 Light troops of inferior quality, used for skirmishing.

If I were not conscious, gentlemen of the Council, that my accusers are seeking every possible means of injuring me, I should feel most grateful to them for this accusation; since I consider that the victims of unjust slander have the greatest service rendered to them by anyone who will compel them to undergo an examination of the record of their lives. [2] For I have so strong a confidence in myself that, if there is anyone who is inclined to dislike me, I hope that when he has heard me speak of my conduct in the past he will change his mind, and will think much better of me in the future. [3] Now, gentlemen, I make no claim to special merit, if I merely make plain to you that I am a supporter of the existing constitution and have been compelled to take my own share in your dangers: but if I am found to have lived, in all other respects, a regular life, quite contrary to the opinion and statements of my enemies, I request you to pass me through and to think the worse of these persons. I will begin by showing that I did not serve in the cavalry or reside here under the Thirty, and that I had no hand in the government of that time. [4]

Our father, before the disaster at the Hellespont,1 had sent us abroad to live at the court of Satyrus, on the Pontus.2 We were not residing in Athens either when the walls were being demolished or when the constitution was being changed.3 We came here five days before the people at Phyle returned to the Peiraeus.4 [5] Surely it was not to be expected that, having arrived at such a moment, we should want to share in dangers that concerned others; while obviously the Thirty were in no mind to share the government with men who were residing abroad and were guilt of no crime: they were rather disfranchising even the men who had helped them to overthrow the democracy. [6] Moreover, to refer to the register for those who served in the cavalry is puerile: for it does not include many of those who admit that they served, while some who were absent abroad are on the list. But the strongest proof lies in the fact that, after you had returned, you voted that the tribal officers should make out a list of those who had served in the cavalry, so that you might recover the allowances5 from them. [7] Well, nobody will be able to show that I was either put on the list by the tribal officers or reported to the Revenue Commission or made to refund an allowance: yet it is within the knowledge of all that the tribal officers were under the necessity, if they failed to show who had the allowances, of bearing the loss themselves. Hence you would be far more justified in relying on these lists than on the register: for anyone who wished could easily have his name erased from the latter; but in the former the tribal officers were obliged to record those who had served. [8] Besides, gentlemen if I had served, I should not deny it as though I had done something monstrous: I should merely claim, after showing that no citizen had suffered injury by my act, to pass the scrutiny. And I see that you also take this view, and that many of those who served then in the cavalry are on the Council, while many others have been elected generals and brigadiers. You must therefore conclude that my only reason for making this defense is that they have dared thus openly to attack me with a falsehood. Mount the dais, please and bear witness.“Testimony” [9]

Now, as regards the charge itself, I do not see what more there is to say. But it seems to me, gentlemen, that although in other trials one ought to confine one's defence to the actual points of the accusation, in the case of scrutinies one has a right to render an account of one's whole life. I request you, therefore, to give me a favorable hearing: I will make my defence as briefly as I can. [10]

In the first place, although but little property had been bequeathed to me, owing to the disasters that had befallen both my father and the city, I bestowed two sisters in marriage with a dowry of thirty minae apiece; to my brother I allowed such a portion as made him acknowledge that he had got a larger share of our patrimony than I had; and towards everyone else my behavior has been such that never to this day has a single person shown any grievance against me. [11] So much for the tenor of my private life: with regard to public matters, I hold that the strongest proof I can give of my decorous conduct is the fact that all the younger set who are found to take their diversion in dice or drink or the like dissipations are, as you will observe, at feud with me, and are most prolific in lying tales about me. It is obvious, surely, that if we were at one in our desires they would not regard me with such feelings. [12] And moreover, gentlemen, nobody will be able to prove that I have ever been cited in a disgraceful private suit, or in public proceedings or in a special impeachment; yet you see others frequently involved in such trials. Again, as regards campaigns and dangers in face of the enemy, observe how I discharge my duty to the State. [13] First of all, when you made your alliance with the Boeotians, and we had to go to the relief of Haliartus,6 I had been enrolled by Orthobulus for service in the cavalry: I saw that it was everyoneÕs opinion that, whereas the cavalry were assured of safety, the infantry would have to face danger; so, while others mounted on horseback illegally, without having passed the scrutiny, I went up to Orthobulus and told him to strike me off the roll, as I thought it shameful, while the majority were to face danger, to take the field with precaution for my own security. Come forward, please, Orthobulus.“Testimony” [14]

Now, when the townsmen had assembled together before their setting out, as I knew that some among them, though true and ardent patriots, lacked means for expenses of service, I said that the well-to-do ought to provide what was necessary for those in needy circumstances. Not only did I recommend this to the others, but I myself gave thirty drachmae each to two men; not as being a person of great possessions, but to set a good example to the others. Come forward, please.“Witnesses” [15]

Then after that, gentlemen, there was the expedition to Corinth7; and everyone knew beforehand that it must be a dangerous affair. Some were trying to shirk their duty, but I contrived to have myself posted in the front rank for our battle with the enemy. Our tribe had the worst fortune, and suffered the heaviest losses in the ranks: I retired from the field later than the fine fellow of Steiria8 who has been reproaching everybody with cowardice. [16] Not many days after this event some strong posts in Corinth had been occupied, to prevent the passage of the enemy: when Agesilaus had forced his way into Boeotia, the commanders decided to detach some battalions to the rescue; everyone felt afraid （with some reason, gentlemen: for it was a serious thing, when they had just previously felt the relief of getting off in safety, to face a fresh danger）, but I went to the commander and urged him to dispatch our battalion.without drawing lots. [17] So if any of you are incensed against those who claim the management of the cityÕs affairs and yet evade its dangers, you can have no right to regard me with any such feeling; for I not only carried out my orders with zeal, but I was also forward to face danger. I acted in this way, not because I did not think it a serious thing to do battle with the Lacedaemonians, but in order that, if ever I should be involved in an unjust prosecution, the better opinion that you would form of me on this account might avail to secure me the full measure of my rights. Now let the witnesses to this come forward, please.“Witnesses” [18]

In every other campaign or outpost I have never once failed in my duty, but have adhered throughout to my rule of marching out in the first rank and retreating in the last. Surely it is by such conduct that one ought to judge who are the aspiring and orderly subjects of the State, and not to take the fact of a manÕs wearing his hair long9 as a reason for hating him; for such habits as this do no harm either to private persons or to the public weal, while it is from those who are ready to face danger before the enemy that you all derive advantage. [19] Hence it is not fair, gentlemen, to like or dislike any man because of his appearance, but rather to judge him by his actions; for many who are modest in speech and sober in dress have been the cause of grievous mischief, while others who are careless of such things have done you many a valuable service. [20]

I have had occasion to observe, gentlemen, that some people are annoyed with me merely for attempting at too early an age to speak before the people. But, in the first place, I was compelled to speak in public to protect my own interests; and indeed, in the second, I do feel that my tendency has been unduly enterprising: for in reflecting on my ancestors, and how they have continually taken part in the administration, I had you also in my view— [21] I must tell you the truth—as attaching no value to any but men of that stamp. So who, on seeing you so minded, would not be stimulated to work and speak for the benefit of the State? Moreover, how could you be annoyed with such people? For it is you, and none else, who are judges of their worth.

1 At Aegospotami, 405 B.C.

2 At Panticapaeum in the east corner of the Tauric Chersonese （Crimea）, capital of the Kingdom of Bosphorus, which exported corn to Athens.

3 In the spring of 404 B.C.

4 In May, 403 B.C.

5 Granted by the State for the provision of equipment. The argument is that this return is more satisfactory evidence for ascertaining who served and who did not.

6 See Lys. 14, Introduction, p. 334.

7 394 B.C.

8 Probably Thrasybulus: Steiria was a township on the east coast of Attica.

9 An aristocratic fashion among the class of knights.

Perhaps some of you, gentlemen of the jury, suppose that, since I desire to be a person of some account, I must be able to excel others in speaking: but, so far from my being competent to speak on matters that do not concern myself, I fear that, even on matters of which I am obliged to speak, I may be unable to say what is needful. I believe, however, that if I can give you the full story of our dealings with Eraton and his children, you will easily form therefrom a proper judgement on the claim now put forward. So let me tell it you from the beginning. [2]

Eraton, father of Erasiphon, borrowed from my grandfather two talents. To show that he received this money, and that it was the amount of the loan that he requested, I will produce to you witnesses before whom the money was paid. As to the use that he made of it, and the profit that he got, those who know better than I, as having been in touch with his business, will relate and testify it to you. Please call witnesses.“Witnesses” [3]

Now as long as Eraton was alive, we duly received our interest and the terms of agreement were kept; but when he died, leaving three sons—Erasiphon, Eraton and Erasistratus,—these persons ceased to give us our rightful dues. During the war,1 of course, as there were no suits at law, we were unable to make them pay what they owed; but when peace was made, as soon as civil suits began to be tried, my father got permission to proceed against Erasistratus for the whole debt, as he alone of the brothers was resident here, and obtained a verdict against him in the archonship of Xenaenetus.2 I will produce to you witnesses of these facts also. Please call witnesses.“Witnesses” [4]

That the property of Eraton should of right be ours is easily understood from these statements, but that the whole is being confiscated appears from the actual inventories; for these have been compiled in detail by three and even four persons. Surely it is obvious to everyone that they would not have omitted any other property of Eraton's available for confiscation, when they were entering all the property of Eraton, including even the part that has belonged to me for a long time past. Well, that it is not possible for us to recover anything even from the other side, once you have confiscated this property, I consider obvious; [5] but now let me tell you how I have treated you,3 as distinct from private persons, in the conduct of this dispute. As long as the relatives of Erasiphon were contesting this property, I claimed the whole as mine, because Erasistratus lost his case when he pleaded against my father's suit for the whole debt; and for the last three years I have let out the property at Sphettus,4 but over the property at Cicynna5 and the house there I was at law with the occupiers. Last year, however, they got my suit quashed by alleging that they were sea-traders6; but at present, although I was permitted to bring proceedings in the month of Gamelion,7 the nautical court has not decided the case. [6] Now that you have seen fit to confiscate the property of Erasiphon, I relinquish two thirds to the State, and claim that the property of Erasistratus be adjudged to me, because it is this property that your previous decision has already made ours. So I have limited my share to one-third of their property, making no exact calculation, but leaving much more than two-thirds to the Treasury. [7] This is easily concluded from the valuation which has been attached to the schedule of the property. For they have valued the whole at more than a talent, whereas to one of the properties for which I am suing I attached five minae, and to the other8 a thousand drachmae9: if they are worth more than those amounts, the surplus after they have been sold by auction will go to the State. [8] And to convince you of the truth of this I will produce to you, as witnesses, first the persons who rented from me the estate at Sphettus, then the neighbors of the place at Cicynna, who know that we have been contesting it for the last three years, and next the magistrates of last year, before whom the suits were authorized to be heard, and the present judges of the nautical court. [9] You will also have these inventories read to you: for they above all will convince you that our claim to this property is no recent matter, and also that today we are contesting with the Treasury an amount that compares favorably with that which we formerly contested with private persons. Please call witnesses.“Witnesses” [10]

That there is no injustice, gentlemen, in my claiming your verdict on the property in question, but rather that I have relinquished to the State a great part of my own property before claiming this restoration, has been clearly proved. And now I deem it just to lay my request before you and also before the Commissioners10 in your presence.

1 The time of the struggle between the thirty oligarchs and the democracy, between 404-403 B.C.

2 401-400 B.C.

3 The jury are addressed as representing the State.

4 A township of the tribe Acamantis in the south of Attica.

5 A township of the tribe Acamantis in the south of Attica.

6 As such they could only be tried before a nautical court.

7 December-January.

8 One at Sphettus and one at Cicynna.

9 A talent was 6000 drachmae, and a mina 100 drachmae. He asks for a value of 15 minae—one eight of the two talents originally lent to Eraton.

10 Of Revenue.

Now you must reflect, gentlemen of the jury, on the character that we bear as citizens ourselves, and also on the family of which we come, when we claim your pity for the wrongs that we have suffered and an award of our rights. For we are contending, not merely for our property, but for our citizenship as well: we must know whether we are to have our portion in the democracy of our city. So first let me remind you of our uncle, Nicias: [2] in all that he did for your common weal while using his own judgement, he will be found everywhere to have been the author of many benefits to the State, and to have inflicted a great number of grievous injuries on the enemy; but in all that he was compelled to do, not of his own wish but against his will, he bore no slight part of the injuries himself, while the responsibility for the disaster ought in fairness to lie with those who persuaded you,1 [3] seeing that of his own loyalty to you and of his merit he afforded proof in your successes and your enemies' failures. For as your general, he took many cities, and many were the splendid trophies of the foe's defeats that he set up; to mention them severally would be wearisome. [4] Now Eucrates, his brother, who was my father, just after the last sea-fight2 had taken place, gave signal evidence of his loyal devotion to your democracy. For after our defeat in the sea-fight he was elected general by you and, although invited to take part in the oligarchy by those who were plotting against the people, he refused to listen to them. [5] He was involved in the kind of crisis3 in which the majority of men not only shift about according to circumstances, but also yield to the vagaries of fortune. The democracy was faced with failure; he was not being driven out of public life, nor did he nurse any private enmity against those who were about to be the rulers. And yet, although it was open to him to become one of the Thirty and to have as much power as any man, he chose rather to perish in working for your safety than to endure the sight of the demolition of the walls, the surrender of the ships to the enemy and the enslavement of your people. [6] And, not long after that, Niceratus, who was my cousin and Nicias's son, and a loyal supporter of your democracy, was arrested and put to death by the Thirty: neither his birth nor his means nor his age could be thought to disqualify him for a part in the government; but it was supposed that he was in such high credit with your democracy on his own account as well as on that of his ancestors that he could never be zealous for a different government. [7] For they were conscious of the honor in which the whole family were held by the city, and how they had faced danger on your behalf in many places, and had made many large contributions to your funds, and had most nobly performed their public services; how they had never once evaded any of the other duties enjoined on them by the State, but had eagerly discharged them all. [8] I ask you, whose misfortune can surpass ours, if under the oligarchy we are put to death for showing loyalty to the people, and under the democracy we are stripped of our property as being disloyal to the people? [9] Furthermore, gentlemen, Diognetus was so slandered by base informers that he went away into exile, and was one of the few of the banished who neither took the field against the city nor came to Decelea4; nor has he been the author of any sort of injury to your people either in exile or after his return, but he carried principle to such a point that he was rather incensed with those who had offended against you than grateful to those who had been the authors of his recall. [10] He held no office under the oligarchy: but, as soon as the Lacedaemonians and Pausanias arrived at the Academy, he took the son of Niceratus and us, who were children, and laying him on the knees of Pausanias, and setting us by his side, he told Pausanias and the others present the tale of our sufferings and the fate that had befallen us, and called on Pausanias to succor us in virtue of our bonds both of friendship and of hospitality, and to do vengeance upon those who had maltreated us. [11] The result was that Pausanias began to be favorable to the people, holding up our calamities to the Lacedaemonians as an example of the villainy of the Thirty. For it had become evident to all the Peloponnesians who had come that they were putting to death, not the most villainous of the citizens, but those who were especially deserving of honor on account of their birth, their wealth and their general excellence. [12] Such was the pity felt for us, and such an impression of our grievous sufferings was made on everyone, that Pausanias rejected the hospitable offerings5 of the Thirty, and accepted ours. Surely it will be strange, gentlemen of the jury, if after being pitied as children by the enemy who had come to succor the oligarchy we, who have proved ourselves the men we are, should be stripped of our property by you, gentlemen, whose fathers gave their lives for the democracy! [13]

I am well aware, gentlemen, that Poliochus would value most highly his success in this trial, since he would regard it as a fine demonstration to citizens and strangers alike that he has sufficient power in Athens to make you vote in contradiction of your own selves on the very question in which you have sworn to do your duty. [14] For everyone will know that formerly you punished with a fine6 of a thousand drachmae the man who proposed that our land should be confiscated, and yet that today he has prevailed with his demand for its confiscation; and that in these two suits, in which the same man was illegally prosecuted, the Athenians voted in contradiction of themselves. [15] Would it not then be disgraceful of you, after confirming your agreements with the Lacedaemonians, to shatter so lightly what you have voted on your own account, and to make valid your covenants with them, but invalidate those that you have made with yourselves? You are incensed with any other Greeks who value the Lacedaemonians more than you; and will you show in your own disposition more fidelity to them than to yourselves? [16] But what calls for the highest indignation is that the disposition of men in public life today is such that the orators do not propose what will be most beneficial to the city, but it is for proposals which must bring profit to them that you give your votes.7 [17] Now, if it were to the advantage of your people that, while some kept their own, others had to suffer the unjust confiscation of their property, you would have some reason to neglect our arguments: but in fact you must all acknowledge that unanimity is the greatest boon to a city, while faction is the cause of all evils; and that mutual dissensions chiefly arise from the desire of some for what is not theirs, and the ejection of others from what they have. This was your conclusion shortly after your return, and your reasoning was sound; [18] for you still remembered the disasters that had occurred, and you prayed to the gods to restore the city to unanimity rather than permit the pursuit of vengeance for what was overpast to lead to faction in the city and the rapid enrichment of the speech-makers. [19] And yet it would have been more pardonable to show resentment shortly after you had returned, while your anger was freshly kindled, than to pursue so belated a vengeance for what is overpast at the bidding of men who, after remaining in the city, conceive that they give you a pledge of their own loyalty when they make bad subjects of their fellows instead of showing themselves good ones, and who today reap the fruits of the city's' successes without having previously shared your perils. [20]

And if you saw, gentlemen, that the property confiscated by these men was being secured for the State, we should forgive them; but the fact is, as you well know, that some of it is melting away in their hands, while the rest, though of great value, is being sold off cheap. Yet, if you will take my advice, you will receive no less profit from it than we, the owners. [21] For at this moment Diomnestus, my brother and I, three of one household, are equipping warships, and when the State requires money we raise a special contribution on these properties. Since, then, we are of this way of thinking, and our ancestors have evinced the same character, spare us. [22] Else we should have no escape, gentlemen, from the most miserable plight: after being left orphans in the time of the Thirty we should be stripped of our property under the democracy,—we, to whom fortune vouchsafed that, as mere children, we should succor the people by going to the tent of Pausanias! Having such a record behind us, with what judges would we have chosen to take refuge? [23] Surely with those who support a constitution for which both our father and our kinsmen gave their lives. And so today this is the sole return that we ask of you for all that we have done,—that you do not suffer us to be reduced to destitution or left in want of bare necessaries, and that you do not ruin the prosperity that was our ancestors', but much rather give an example to those who desire to do the State good service of the treatment that they will receive from you in times of danger. [24]

I have nobody, gentlemen, whom I can put up here to plead on our behalf: for some of my kinsmen, after giving proof of their valor in promoting the greatness of the city, have perished in the war; others, in the defence of the democracy and of your freedom, have drunk hemlock under the Thirty. [25] We therefore owe our isolation to the merits of our kinsmen and the calamities of the State. Bearing all this in mind, you ought to succor us, judging those to be rightful recipients of your favours under democracy who bore their share of calamity under oligarchy. [26] I also call upon the Commissioners here to be kind to us: let them remember that time when, expelled from your native land and deprived of your property, you esteemed most highly the men who gave their lives for you, and you prayed to the gods that you might be able to show your gratitude to their children. [27] So we, sons and relatives of those who have been foremost to meet danger in the cause of freedom, ask this return of your gratitude today, and call upon you not to ruin us unjustly, but much rather to succor those who have shared in the common calamities. Now I beg and beseech and implore you to grant us what we claim. For it is no slight matter that we have at stake: it is the whole of our possessions.

1 The reference is to the Sicilian expedition in 415 B.C., which Nicias had opposed; cf. Thuc. 6.8 ff.

2 At Aegospotami, 405 B.C.

3 The oligarchic revolution of the Thirty, 404 B.C.

4 Where the Spartans kept a stranglehold on Attica, and welcomed exiled oligarchs from Athens.

5 Gifts were offered as tokens of a friendly welcome.

6 Inflicted on a prosecutor who failed to obtain a fifth of the judges' votes.

7 The law awarded three-quarters of a property confiscated to the person who brought the action for its confiscation; cf. Lys. 18.20 below.

I find myself greatly embarrassed by this trial, gentlemen of the jury, when I consider that if I fail to speak with effect today not only I but my father besides will be held to be guilty, and I shall be deprived of the whole of my possessions. It is necessary therefore, even if I have no natural aptitude for the task, to defend my father and myself as best I can. [2] You see, of course, the artifice and the alacrity of my enemies; of these there is no need to speak; whereas everyone who knows me is aware of my inexperience. I shall therefore beg of you the just and easy favor of hearing us with the same absence of anger as when you listened to our accusers. [3] For the man who speaks in his defence, even if you give him an impartial hearing, must needs be at a disadvantage: those people have laid their schemes long before, and without any danger to themselves have delivered their accusation; whereas we are contending amid fear and slander and the gravest danger. It is reasonable, therefore, that you should feel more kindness for those who are making their defence. [4] For I think you all know that there have been many cases in the past of men bringing forward a number of formidable accusations, who have been convicted then and there of lying on such clear evidence that they left the court detested by all who had been present; while others again, after bearing false witness and causing people to be unjustly put to death, have been condemned too late for it to be of any use to their victims. [5] So, when many cases of this sort have occurred, as I am told, it is reasonable that you, gentlemen, should wait till we have had our say before you accept the statements of our. accusers as trustworthy. I myself am told, and I think most of you know also, that slander is the most dangerous thing on earth. [6] This is especially to be observed when a number of persons are brought to trial on the same charge. For, as a rule, the last to be judged are let off, since your anger has then ceased, and as you listen to them you willingly admit their disproofs.1 [7]

Reflect therefore that Nicophemus and Aristophanes were put to death without trial,2 before anyone could come to their aid as the proof of their guilt was being made out. For nobody even saw them again after their arrest, since their bodies were not even delivered for burial: so awful has their calamity been that, in addition to the rest, they have suffered this privation also. [8] But from that business I will now pass, as I can do no good there. Far more miserable, in my opinion, are the children of Aristophanes: for, having done no wrong to anyone in either private or public affairs, not only have they been bereft of their patrimony in violation of your laws, but their one remaining hope, of being reared with the means of their grandfather, has been placed in this serious predicament. [9] Moreover we, bereft of our kinsfolk, bereft of the dowry,3 and compelled to rear three small children, are attacked besides by base informers, and are in danger of losing what our ancestors bequeathed to us after they had acquired it by honest means. Yet, gentlemen, my father in all his life spent more on the State than on himself and his family,—twice the amount that we have now, as he often reckoned in my presence. [10] So you must not rashly convict of guilt the man who spent little on himself, but a great deal on you each year; you ought rather to condemn all those persons who have made a habit of squandering both their patrimony and whatever they can get from elsewhere on the most disgraceful pleasures. [11] It is difficult indeed, gentlemen, to defend oneself against an impression which some people have received of the property of Nicophemus, and in face of a scarcity of money that is now felt in the city, and when our contention is against the Treasury. Nevertheless, even in these circumstances, you will easily perceive that the accusations are not true; and I request you with all the insistence in my power to give us a kindly hearing to the end, and to deliver the verdict that you may esteem best for you and most agreeable to your oaths. [12]

Now I will inform you, in the first place, of the way in which they4 became connected with us. Conon, who was in command of operations around the Peloponnese,5 and who had formed a friendship long before with my father when he equipped a warship, requested him to bestow my sister on her suitor, the son of Nicophemus. [13] My father, finding that these people had been accredited by Conon, and were of proved respectability and—at that time at least6—in the good graces of the city, was persuaded to bestow her: he did not know the slander that was to follow. It was a time when anyone among you would have deemed it desirable to be connected with them; for it was not done for the sake of money, as you may readily judge from my father's whole life and conduct. [14] When he was of age, he had the chance of marrying another woman with a great fortune; but he took my mother without a portion, merely because she was a daughter of Xenophon,7 son of Euripides, a man not only known for his private virtues but also deemed worthy by you of holding high command, so I am told. [15] Again, my sisters he refused to certain very wealthy men who were willing to take them without dowries, because he judged them to be of inferior birth: he preferred to bestow one upon Philomelus of Paeania,8 whom most men regard as an honorable rather than a wealthy man, and the other upon a man who was reduced to poverty by no misdemeanor,—his nephew, Phaedrus9 of Myrrhinous,10—and with her a dowry of forty minae; and he later gave her to Aristophanes with the same sum. [16] Besides doing this, when I could have obtained a great fortune he advised me to take a lesser one, so long as I felt sure of allying myself with people of an orderly and self-respecting character. So now I am married to the daughter of Critodemus of Alopece,11 who was killed by the Lacedaemonians after the sea-fight at the Hellespont.12 [17] Now I submit, gentlemen of the jury, that a man who has himself married a portionless woman, who has bestowed large sums with his two daughters, and who has accepted a small dowry for his son, ought surely in reason to be credited with allying himself to these people without a thought of money. [18]

Nay, more, Aristophanes, although he was now married, must have preferred to be intimate with many people rather than my father, as may readily be conceived. For there was a great difference both in his age and still more in his nature. It was my father's way to mind his own business; whereas Aristophanes sought to concern himself not only with private but also with public affairs, and whatever money he had he spent in the pursuit of glory. [19] You will perceive the truth of what I say from his actual conduct. First, when Conon wanted to send someone to Sicily,13 he offered himself and went off with Eunomus, who was a friend and guest of Dionysius, and who had rendered a great many services to your people, as I have been told by those who were with him at the Peiraeus. [20] The voyage was undertaken in hopes of persuading Dionysius to connect himself by marriage with Evagoras,14 and to become an enemy of the Lacedaemonians and a friend and ally of your city. This they set out to do amid many dangers arising from the sea and from the enemy, and they prevailed on Dionysius not to send some warships which he had then prepared for the Lacedaemonians. [21] Next, when the envoys had arrived from Cyprus to procure our assistance,15 his ardent energy knew no bounds. You had granted them ten warships, and had voted all the material, but they were in need of money for the dispatch of the fleet. They had brought but scanty funds with them, and they required a great deal more: for they had to hire not only men to work the ships but light infantry also, and to purchase arms. [22] Well, it was Aristophanes who personally supplied most of their funds: as he had not enough, he persuaded his friends with entreaties and guarantees, and he took forty minae which he had in deposit at his house for his brother on the father's side, and applied the money to that purpose. The day before he put to sea, he called on my father and pressed him for the loan of such money as he had; for some more was required, he said, to pay the light infantry. We had seven minae in the house: he took these and applied them also. [23] What man, think you, who was ambitious of glory, and was receiving letters from his father that told him he would lack for nothing in Cyprus, and had been elected ambassador and was about to sail to Evagoras, would have left behind anything that he possessed, and not have rather gratified that ruler by supplying everything that he could, with a view to a handsome return? Now, to show the truth of all this, please call Eunomus.“Testimony”

Please call the other witnesses also.“Witnesses” [24]

You hear them testify, not only that they lent the money at his request, but also that they have been repaid; for it was conveyed to them in the warship.

Well now, it is easily concluded from my argument that in such emergencies he was not likely to spare his own resources. But the strongest evidence is this: [25] Demus, son of Pyrilampes,16 who was equipping a warship for Cyprus, requested me to go to Aristophanes; he said he had received a gold cup as a credential from the Great King, and would give it to Aristophanes in pledge for sixteen minae, so as to have means for equipping his warship; when he got to Cyprus, he would redeem it with a payment of twenty minae, since on the strength of that credential he would then obtain plenty of goods and also money all over the continent. [26] Then Aristophanes, on hearing this proposal from Demus and a request from me,—although he was to have the gold cup in his hands and receive four minae as interest,— said that it was impossible, and he swore that he had already gone elsewhere to borrow more for these foreigners; since, but for that, nobody alive, he declared, would have been more delighted than he to take that credential forthwith and to comply with our request. [27] To show the truth of this, I will produce to you witnesses.“Witnesses”

So then, that Aristophanes did not leave any silver or gold is easily concluded from what I have stated and from these testimonies. Of fine17 bronze plate he possessed but little: when he was entertaining the envoys of Evagoras, he had to use what he could borrow. The list of the pieces that he left shall be read to you.“Inventory of Bronze Plate” [28]

Perhaps to some of you, gentlemen of the jury, they appear few: but bear in mind the fact that before Conon won his victory at sea,18 Aristophanes had no land except a small plot at Rhamnus.19 Now the sea-fight occurred in the archonship of Eubulides; [29] and in four or five years it was a difficult thing, gentlemen, when he had no wealth to start with, to be twice a producer of tragedies, on his father's account as well as his own; to equip a warship for three years in succession; to have been a contributor to special levies on many occasions; to purchase a house for fifty minae; and to acquire more than three hundred plethra20 of land. Do you suppose that, besides doing all this, he must have left many personal effects? [30] Why, even people credited with long-established wealth may fail to produce any that are of value: for at times, however much one may desire it, one cannot buy things of the sort that, once acquired, will be a permanent source of pleasure. [31] Again, consider this: in all other cases where you have confiscated the property, not merely have you had no sale of furniture, but even the doors were torn away from the apartments; whereas we, as soon as the confiscation was declared and my sister had left the place, posted a guard in the deserted house, in order that neither door-timber nor utensils nor anything else might be lost. Personal effects were realized to the value of over a thousand drachmae, [32] —more than you had received in any previous instance. Moreover, we now repeat our former offer to pledge ourselves to the Commissioners, in the most binding terms available to man, that we hold no part of Aristophanes' estate, but are owed from it the dowry of my sister and seven minae which he got from my father at his departure. [33] Could human beings have a more miserable fate than to lose their own property, and then to be supposed to hold that of the mulcted party? And the greatest hardship of all for us will be that, having taken charge of my sister and her many children, we must rear them with no means available even for ourselves, if you deprive us of what we now have. [34]

I adjure you, by the Olympian gods, gentlemen, just consider it in this way: suppose that one of you had happened to bestow his daughter or his sister on Timotheus,21 son of Conon, and during his absence abroad Conon was involved in some slander and his estate was confiscated, and the city received from the sale of the whole something less than four talents of silver. Would you think it right that his children and relatives should be ruined merely because the property had turned out to be but a trifling fraction of the amount at which it stood in your estimation? [35] But of course you are all aware that Conon held the command, and Nicophemus carried out his instructions. Now it is probable that Conon allotted to others but a small proportion of his prizes; so that if it be thought that Nicophemus's gains were great, it must be allowed that Conon's were more than ten times greater. [36] Furthermore, there is no evidence of any dispute having occurred between them; so probably in regard to money they agreed in deciding that each should leave his son with a competence here,22 while keeping the rest in his own hands.23 For Conon had a son and a wife in Cyprus, and Nicophemus a wife and a daughter, and they also felt that their property there was just as safe as their property here. [37] Besides, you have to consider that, even if a man had distributed among his sons what he had not acquired but inherited from his father, he would have reserved a goodly share for himself24; for everyone would rather be courted by his children as a man of means than beg of them as a needy person. [38]

So, in this case, if you should confiscate the property of Timotheus,—which Heaven forbid, unless some great benefit is to accrue to the State,—and you should receive a less amount from it than has been derived from that of Aristophanes, would this give you any good reason for thinking that his relatives should lose what belongs to them? No, it is not reasonable, gentlemen of the jury: [39] for Conon's death and the dispositions made under his will in Cyprus have clearly shown that his fortune was but a small fraction of what you were expecting. He dedicated five thousand staters25 in offerings to Athene and to Apollo at Delphi; [40] to his nephew, who acted as guardian and manager of all his property in Cyprus, he gave about ten thousand drachmae; to his brother three talents; and to his son he left the rest,—seventeen talents. The round total of these sums amounts to about forty talents. [41] And nobody can say that there was malversation, or that the accounts were not fairly rendered: for he made his dispositions himself in his illness, while his mind was sound. Please call witnesses to this.“Witnesses” [42]

Why, surely anyone, gentlemen, before the amounts of the two had been revealed, would have thought that the property of Nicophemus was a mere fraction of that of Conon. Now, Aristophanes had acquired a house with land for more than five talents, had produced dramas on his own account and on his father's at a cost of five thousand drachmae,26 and had spent eighty minae27 on equipping warships; [43] on account of the two, no less than forty minae have been contributed to special levies; for the Sicilian expedition he spent a hundred minae,28 and for commissioning the warships, when the Cypriots came and you gave them the ten vessels, he supplied thirty thousand drachmae29 to pay the light infantry and purchase their arms. The total of all these sums amounts to little short of fifteen talents. [44] Hence you can have no reason to lay blame on us, since the property of Conon, which is admitted to have been fairly accounted for by the owner himself, and was thought to be many times more than that of Aristophanes, is found to be less than thrice the amount of his. And we are omitting from the calculation all that Nicophemus held himself in Cyprus, where he had a wife and a daughter. [45]

I claim, therefore, gentlemen of the jury, that after having produced such an abundance of weighty proofs we ought not to be unjustly ruined. I have been told by my father and other elderly people that you have had similar experiences in the past of being deceived in the fortunes of many men who were supposed to be wealthy while they lived, but whose death showed your supposition to be wide of the mark. [46] For example, Ischomachus during his life was considered by everyone to own more than seventy talents, as I am told: his two sons, on his death, had less than ten talents to divide between them. Stephanus, son of Thallus, was reported to own more than fifty talents; but when he died his fortune was found to be about eleven talents. [47] Again, the estate of Nicias was expected to be not less than a hundred talents,— most of it in his house; but when Niceratus30 was dying, he said that he in his turn was not leaving any silver or gold, and the property that he left to his son is worth no more than fourteen talents. [48] Then Callias,31 son of Hipponicus, just after his father's death, was thought to have more in his possession than any other Greek, and the story goes that his grandfather valued his own property at two hundred talents; yet his ratable property stands today at less than two talents. And you all know how Cleophon32 for many years had all the affairs of the State in his hands, and was expected to have got a great deal by his office; but when he died this money was nowhere to be found, [49] and moreover his relatives both by blood and by marriage, in whose hands he would have left it, are admittedly poor people. So it is evident that we have been greatly deceived both in men of hereditary riches and in those who have recently gained a name for wealth. The cause of this, in my opinion, is that people make light of stating that such an one has got many talents by his office. As to the common statements about dead people, I am not so much surprised, since there is no disproof to fear from them; but what of the lies with which they assail the living? [50] Why, you yourselves were told of late in the Assembly that Diotimus33 had got forty talents more from the ship-masters and merchants34 than he himself admitted; and when he rendered an account on his return, and was indignant at being slandered in his absence, nobody put that matter to the proof, although the State was in need of money, [51] and he was ready to show his accounts. Just imagine what the position would have been if, after all the Athenians had been told that Diotimus had forty talents, something had then happened to him before he reached our shores. His relatives would then have been in the gravest danger, if they had been obliged to defend themselves against that monstrous slander without any knowledge of the facts of the case. So, for your being deceived in many people even now, and indeed for the ruin that some have unjustly incurred, you have to thank those who make light of telling lies and are bent on bringing malicious charges against their fellows. [52] For I suppose you know that Alcibiades held command for four or five years35 in succession, keeping the upper hand and winning victories over the Lacedaemonians: the cities thought well to give him twice as much as any other commander, so that some people supposed that he had more than a hundred talents. But when he died36 he left evidence that this was not true: for he bequeathed a smaller fortune to his children than he had inherited himself from his guardians. [53]

Well now, that such things were common in former times is easily judged. But they say that it is the best and wisest men who are most willing to change their minds. If, therefore, our statements are deemed to be reasonable and the proofs that we have adduced satisfactory, gentlemen of the jury, show your pity by all manner of means. For, grievous as was the weight of this slander, we always expected to conquer with the help of truth: but if you should altogether refuse to entertain our plea, we felt ourselves without a single hope of deliverance. [54] Ah, by the Olympian gods, gentlemen, choose rather to deliver us with justice than to ruin us with injustice; and believe that those men speak the truth who, though keeping silent, show themselves throughout their lives self-respecting and just. [55]

In regard to the charge itself, and the manner in which they became our kinsmen, and the fact that Aristophanes' means were not sufficient for the expedition, but were supplemented by loans from others, you have heard our statements and testimonies: I propose next to tell you briefly about myself. I am now thirty years old, and never yet have I either had a dispute with my father or been the subject of a complaint from any citizen; and although I live near the market-place, I have never once been seen in either law-court or council-chamber until I met with this misfortune. [56] So much let me say regarding myself: as to my father, since he has been treated as guilty in these accusations, forgive me if I mention what he has spent on the city and on his friends; I do this, not for mere vainglory, but to bring in as evidence the fact that the same man cannot both spend a great deal without compulsion and covet some of the public property at the gravest risk. [57] There are, indeed, persons who spend money in advance, not with that sole object, but to obtain a return of twice the amount from the appointments which you consider them to have earned.37 Now, not once did my father seek office, but he has discharged every duty in the production of dramas, has equipped a warship seven times, and has made numerous large contributions to special levies. That you on your part may be apprised of this, the record shall be read in detail.“Public Services” [58]

You hear, gentlemen of the jury, the whole series. For as many as fifty years my father performed services to the State, both with his purse and with his person. In all that time, with his reputation for ancestral wealth, he is not likely to have shunned any expense. However, I will strengthen the case for you with witnesses.“Witnesses” [59]

The sum total of them all is nine talents and two thousand drachmae. In addition, he also joined privately in portioning daughters and sisters of certain needy citizens: there were men whom he ransomed from the enemy, and others for whose funerals he provided money. He acted in this way because he conceived it to be the part of a good man to assist his friends, even if nobody was to know: but at this moment it is fitting that you should hear of it from me. Please call this and that person.“Witnesses” [60]

Well then, you have heard the witnesses; and now reflect that, although one might be able to adopt a feigned character for a short time, nobody in the world could keep his baseness secret for seventy years. Now, there are things for which it might perhaps be possible to reproach my father; but on the score of money there is no one, even among his enemies, who has ever dared to do so. [61] It is not fair, then, to credit our accusers' words rather than the deeds that marked his whole life, or than time, which you are to regard as the clearest test of truth. If he had been of another stamp, he would not have left but a small remnant of his estate; for if you should now be utterly deceived by these people, and should confiscate our property, you would receive less than two talents. So not only with a view to repute, but also in respect of money, it is more to your advantage to acquit us; for you will get far more benefit if we keep it. [62] Consider, as you survey the time that is past, all that is found to have been spent on the city: at this moment, too, I am equipping a warship from the residue; my father was equipping one when he died, and I will try to do what I saw him doing, and raise, by degrees, some little sums for the public services. Thus in reality it continues to be the property of the State, and while I shall not be feeling the wrong of having been deprived of it, you will have in this way more benefits than you would get by its confiscation. [63] Moreover, you would do well to reflect on the kind of nature that my father possessed. In every single case where he desired to spend beyond what was necessary, it will be found that it was something designed to bring honor to the city also. For instance, when he was in the cavalry, he not only procured handsome mounts, but also won victories with race-horses at the Isthmus and Nemea, so that the city was proclaimed, and he himself was crowned. [64] I therefore beg you, gentlemen of the jury, to remember these things, and also everything else that has been stated, and to support us, and not to suffer us to be annihilated by our enemies. In taking this course you will be voting what is just and also advantageous to yourselves.

1 The slanderer has the art of raising indignation against his victims: if there is time for this to cool down, the falsity of his charges is exposed.

2 On a summary impeachment allowed in special cases of treason or embezzlement.

3 Of the speaker's sister; cf. Lys. 19.32 below.

4 The family of Aristophanes.

5 393 B.C., when he succeeded in reestablishing some strongholds of the Athenians on the coasts of Laconia.

6 So far there were no signs of their later disloyalty.

7 One of the Athenian generals to whom the Potidaeans surrendered in 430 B.C. He was killed in a fight with the Chalcidians in Thrace, 429 B.C. （cf. Thuc. 2.70, 79）.

8 A township of Attica.

9 The same person who appears in Plato's Phaedrus and Symposium.

10 A township of Attica.

11 A township of Attica.

12 At Aegospotami, 405 B.C. After surprising the Athenian fleet （there was practically no “sea-fight”） Lysander executed 3000 Athenians who were captured.

13 In 393 B.C., to undermine the friendship between Dionysius, despot of Syracuse, and the Spartans, who had helped him to attain his power in 406 B.C.

14 Despot of Salamis in Cyprus, and steady friend of Athens.

15 Against the Persians.

16 This Demus has been famous in youth for his beauty: cf. Aristoph. Wasps 98, Plat. Gorg. 481d, Plat. Gorg. 513b.

17 Containing an admixture of gold and silver.

18 At Cnidus, 394 B.C.

19 A district of Attica.

20 Amounting to about 80 acres.

21 A friend of Isocrates, and an important Athenian commander and statesman, c. 380-352 B.C. His father Conon, like Aristophanes' father Nicophemus, resided and died in Cyprus.

22 In Athens.

23 In Cyprus.

24 Still more would this be the case if, like Conon's, his wealth had been acquired by his public services.

25 The Attic stater was a gold coin equal to 20 drachmae.

26 50 minae.

27 1 talent and 20 minae.

28 1 talent and 40 minae.

29 5 talents.

30 Son of Nicias; cf. Lys. 18, On the Confession of the Property of the brother of Nicias.

31 A wealthy patron of Sophists; cf. Plato, Protagoras.

32 Cf. Lys. 13.7, note.

33 An Athenian general, 388-387 B.C.

34 In return for the protection given them in their business by the general.

35 411-407 B.C.

36 He was murdered in Phrygia, 404 B.C.

37 Some men spend money to earn a good name for public spirit: it is spent, not for that end alone, but as a speculation on the prospect of gaining twice as much in gifts during their tenure of the office which they hope to obtain.

In my opinion it is not the name of the Four Hundred that should incense you, but the actions of some of their number. For there were some who had insidious designs: but the rest were resolved to do no harm either to the city or to any amongst you; they entered the Council-chamber with loyal thoughts, and the defendant, Polystratus, is one of that section. [2] He was chosen by his tribesmen for the soundness of his views in regard to his township and also towards your people: yet they accuse him of disloyalty to your people, after he has been chosen by his tribesmen, who can best discern the character of this or that person amongst them. [3] And what reason could he have had for courting an oligarchy? Because he was of an age to achieve success amongst you as a speaker, or because he had such bodily strength as might encourage him to commit an outrage on any of your people? But you see of what age he is: it is one that fits him rather to restrain others from such proceedings. [4] To be sure, if a man has been disfranchised for some misdemeanor in the past, and so has courted a change in the constitution, he may be led by his past offences to seek his personal interest; but this man had committed no such offence as might lead him to hate your people in his own interest or in that of his children. One of these was in Sicily, the others were in Boeotia; so it was no interest of theirs that he should court a change in the constitution. [5] They do accuse him of having held many magistracies, but nobody is able to show that he was a bad magistrate. My own opinion is that it is not men of his character who are guilty of wrong in such situations, but some holder of a few offices who has not held them for the best advantage of the city. For our city was not betrayed by her good magistrates, but by her dishonest ones. [6] This man, first of all, as a magistrate in Oropus,1 neither betrayed you nor set up a new constitution when everyone else in office utterly betrayed their trust. They did not stay for the reckoning, thus convicting themselves of guilt; whereas he, feeling himself innocent, comes up for punishment! [7] The guilty are smuggled out by their accusers in return for payment; but those from whom they can get no profit they expose as guilty. They make similar accusations against those who have proposed some motion in the Council and against those who have not. But this man has not even proposed one motion regarding your people; [8] and I presume that these persons deserve no ill-treatment at your hands on the ground that, while they were loyal to you, they did not incur the enmity of that party.2 For those who spoke in opposition to them were either exiled or put to death, so that whoever did aspire to oppose them in your interest was invariably deterred by fright or by the slaughter of their victims. [9] Hence in most cases they completely lost heart, since those who were not banished were executed. Those among them who engaged to obey and refrain from plotting and reporting, they placed in power. Thus a change of government would have been no easy thing for you. It is not fair, then, to punish people for matters in which they showed their loyalty to you. [10] And I consider it monstrous that the same treatment meted out to those who proposed measures concerning your people that were not to its highest advantage should also be applied to the man who proposed nothing, and who in seventy years has committed no offence against you, let alone eight days! Those who spent their whole lives in knavery have appeared as honest men before the auditors, because they have tampered with their accusers; while those who were always honest towards you—they are the knaves. [11]

Now, in their previous prosecution, among other lying charges that they made against my father, they stated that Phrynichus3 was a relation of his. Well, let anyone, if he pleases, bear witness, in the time allowed for my speech, that there was kinship with Phrynichus. But, of course, their accusation was a lie. Nor, indeed, was he a friend of his by upbringing; for Phrynichus was a poor man, and kept sheep in the fields, while my father was being educated in town. [12] On attaining manhood he looked after his farm, while Phrynichus came to town and became a slander-monger; so that the characters of the two were not at all compatible. And when Phrynichus had to pay a fine to the Treasury, my father did not bring him his contribution of money: yet it is in such cases that we see the best proof of a man's friends. If he was of the same township, that is no reason why my father deserves to suffer,— [13] unless you also are guilty because he is your fellow-citizen. Where could you find a better friend of the people than the man who, after you had decreed that the government be entrusted to Five Thousand, proceeded as Registrar to make a list of nine thousand, his purpose being to risk no quarrel with any of his townsmen, but to enter the names of anyone who wished to be included; and then, if in some cases there was a disability, to do it as a favour. Well, the democracy is not upset by those who increase the number of the citizens, but by those who reduce it. [14] He was unwilling either to take the oath or to make up the list: they compelled him by the imposition of fines and penalties. When he was thus compelled, and had taken the oath, after sitting for only eight days in Council he took ship to Eretria,4 and in the sea-fights there he showed no craven heart: he came home wounded, just when the revolution had taken place. And this man, who had neither proposed any motion nor sat in Council for more than eight days, was sentenced to pay that large sum, while many of those who had spoken in opposition to you, and had continued in Council throughout, have been acquitted. [15] I speak not in envy of their case, but in pity for ours: some who were thought guilty have been begged off by persons whose administration evinced their zeal in your cause; others who were guilty bought off their accusers, and were not so much as thought guilty. Our plight, therefore, would be quite unaccountable. [16] They accuse the Four Hundred of criminal conduct: yet you were yourselves persuaded by them to hand over the government to the Five Thousand, and if you, being so many yourselves, were persuaded, why should not each one of the Four Hundred have yielded likewise? Nay, it is not these who are guilty, but the men who were deceiving you to your hurt. The defendant shows his loyalty to you by this fact among many,—that, if he did have revolutionary designs upon your people, he would never have taken ship and gone off within eight days of taking his seat in Council. [17] But, it night be said, he took ship in the quest of gain, like some people who went raiding and robbing. Well, nobody can cite any case of his keeping property of yours: no, they accuse him of anything rather than his use of his office. The prosecution at the time in no way showed their loyalty to the democracy, nor supported it; but now that the democracy is its own most loyal friend, their support is given nominally to you, but actually to themselves. [18] And do not be surprised, gentlemen of the jury, that he was fined such a large sum. For they found him without support, and obtained his conviction by accusations brought against both him and us. For, in his case, even if a man had evidence to give in his favor, he was prevented by the terror inspired by the accusers, whereas, in theirs, men were ready, through terror, to give even false evidence for them. [19] How monstrous, gentlemen, would be our fate if, although the men who are unable to deny their possession of your money are acquitted by you on the intercession of a friend, we who have shown our personal zeal in your people's cause, and whose father, too, has done you no wrong, are not to obtain your grace! If some foreigner had come and either asked you for money or claimed to be recorded as your benefactor, you would have granted his request; and will you not grant to us, that we ourselves should have civic rights among you? [20] If there have been cases of disloyalty to your government or of the proposal of an improper motion, it is not the absent who are to blame for these things, since you have absolved even those who were present. For, even when one of our citizens here persuades you with mischievous advice, it is not you who are to blame, but your deceiver. [21] But those men,5 convicting themselves of guilt in advance, have taken themselves off in order to escape punishment: while any others who were guilty,—though in a less degree than they, but still guilty,—are moved by their fear at once of you and of their accusers to take the field instead of staying at home, in order that they may either mollify you or prevail on them. [22] The defendant, having done you no wrong, has submitted himself to justice immediately after those events, when your memory of what occurred was freshest, and he could best be put to the proof: he trusted in his own innocence and in the success which justice would award him in his trial. That he was a friend of the people, I will prove to you. [23] First of all, how many were the campaigns in which he served without once shirking his duty, can be told, from personal knowledge, by his fellow-townsmen. Then, when he might well have put his fortune away out of sight and refused to help you, he preferred that you should have cognizance of it, in order that, even if he chose to play the knave, he could have no chance, but must contribute to the special levies and perform his public services. He also placed us in a position to be most helpful to the State. [24] He sent me away to Sicily, but I was not … 6 to you; so the cavalry should know what kind of spirit I showed as long as the army was safe: but when it was destroyed and I escaped to Catana,7 I used that town as a base for depredations by which I harried the enemy, so that from the spoil more than thirty minae were apportioned as the tithe for the goddess8 and enough to deliver all the soldiers who were in the hands of the enemy. [25] And when the Cataneans compelled me to serve in the cavalry, I did so, and shirked no danger there either; so that everyone must know what kind of spirit I showed on service both with the cavalry and with the infantry. I will provide you with my witnesses to these facts.“Witnesses” [26]

You have heard the witnesses, gentlemen of the jury. As to my disposition towards your people, I will make it plain to you. A Syracusan had arrived in that place with a form of oath, and was ready to administer it, and was approaching the people of the place one by one:9 I at once spoke against him, and went and reported the matter to Tydeus; he summoned an Assembly, and there were speeches not a few. However, I will call witnesses to what I said myself.“Witnesses” [27]

Consider now the letter from my father, which he arranged to be conveyed to me, and say whether its contents were of good or evil import to your people. In it he had written concerning our domestic affairs, and further, that when things were going well in Sicily I should return. Now surely your interests and those of the people there were the same; so, if he had not been loyal to the State and to you, he would never have sent such a letter. [28]

Then again, as to my youngest brother, I will inform you of his disposition towards you. When a descent was made on us by the returning exiles, who not only wreaked here whatever damage they could, but also raided and harried you from their fortress,10 he galloped out from the cavalry ranks and killed one of them. As witnesses to this I will produce to you the actual men who were present at the affair.“Witnesses” [29]

Of my eldest brother enough is known by his actual comrades in the campaign,—by any of you who were with Leon at the Hellespont,—for him to be accounted the equal of any man in spirit. Please come up here.“Witnesses” [30]

How, then, should we not obtain our reward from you, with such characters as those? Is our destruction to be justified by the slanders by which my father has been traduced to you, and are we to reap no benefit from the zeal that we have shown in the city's service? Nay, there would be no justice in it. Supposing that we ought to suffer on account of the slander aimed at him, we deserve, on account of that zeal of ours, to save both him and ourselves. [31] For indeed it was not for the sake of money that we might get that we sought your good; our purpose was that, if we found ourselves in trouble, we might be saved by this plea, and might obtain our due reward at your hands. And for the sake of other people also you ought to be so disposed, recognizing that, whenever zeal is shown in your service, your support will be not merely for us,—for even before making any request you have proved our attitude towards you,—but you will make the others more zealous by your bestowal of merited favor in every case of service rendered to you. [32] And avoid giving any kind of confirmation to those who repeat the most wicked of all sayings,—that ill-treated men have better memories than the well-treated. For who will keep a loyal heart, if those who harm you are to be preferred to those who help you? What you have to do, gentlemen, is this: [33] your decision is to be taken on us, and not on our estate. For so long as there was peace, we had a material fortune and our father was skillful in his farming; but after the invasion of the enemy, we were deprived of the whole of it. So this was the very reason why we were zealous in your service: we knew that we had no funds from which we could pay a fine, but that our personal zeal in your service entitles us to get some recompense. [34] And yet we find, gentlemen, that when someone puts forward his children with sobs and lamentations you take pity on the children for the disfranchisement that they will owe to him; and you overlook the fathers' transgressions on account of the children, of whom you cannot yet tell whether they will grow up to be good citizens or bad. But of us you can tell that we have zealously worked in your service, and that our father is clear of any transgression. Thus you are far more justified in showing favor to those whose work you have tested than to those of whom you cannot tell how they will shape in the future. [35] And our position is the contrary of that of other people: for others seek your indulgence by producing their children; but we seek it by producing our father here and ourselves, begging you not to deprive us of the rights that we now enjoy, and so leave us, your fellow-citizens, without a city. Nay, pity both our father in his old age, and us. If you ruin us unjustly, what pleasure will there be for him in our society, or for us in company with each other, when we are unworthy both of you and of the city ? But all three of us beseech you to let us give yet greater proofs of our zeal. [36] We beseech you, then, in the name of all that each of you holds dear,—if any have sons, pity us for their sake; if any is our equal, or our father's, in age, pity us and acquit us. And do not let your act frustrate our purpose of rendering service to the State. Dreadful would be our lot if, from the enemy, who might fairly have denied us safety, we yet obtained safety, but at your hands we shall fail to find salvation.

1 On the north coast of Attica.

2 The oligarchs.

3 An active member of the oligarchy of Four Hundred （411 B.C.）; cf. Lys. 13.70, Against Agoratus.

4 On the coast of Euboea, opposite the north coast of Attica.

5 The revolutionaries.

6 A gap occurs here in the text.

7 On the east coast of Sicily.

8 Presumably Athene.

9 Apparently this man pretended that he had been commissioned by the magistrates to enlist troops.

10 Probably （with the Spartans） at Decelea in Attica.

In regard to the counts of the accusation, gentlemen of the jury, you have been sufficiently informed; but I must ask your attention also for what has yet to be added, so that you may understand what kind of person I am before you give your verdict upon me. I was certified of age1 in the archonship of Theopompus2: appointed to produce tragic drama, I spent thirty minae and two months later, at the Thargelia,3 two thousand drachmae, when I won a victory with a male chorus; and in the archonship of Glaucippus,4 at the Great Panathenaea, eight hundred drachmae on pyrrhic5 dancers. [2] Besides, I won a victory with a male chorus at the Dionysia under the same archon, and spent on it, including the dedication of the tripod, five thousand drachmae; then, in the time of Diocles,6 three hundred on a cyclic7 chorus at the Little Panathenaea. In the meantime, for seven years I equipped warships, at a cost of six talents. [3] Although I have borne all these expenses, and have faced daily peril in your service abroad, I have nevertheless made contributions—one of thirty minae and another of four thousand drachmae—to special levies. As soon as I returned to these shores, in the archonship of Alexias,8 I was producing games for the Promethea,9 and won a victory after spending twelve minae. [4] Then, later, I was appointed to produce a chorus of children, and spent more than fifteen minae. In the archonship of Eucleides10 I produced comic drama for Cephisodorus and won a victory, spending on it, with the dedication of the equipment, sixteen minae; and at the Little Panathenaea I produced a chorus of beardless pyrrhic dancers, and spent seven minae. [5]

I have won a victory with a warship in the race at Sunium,11 spending fifteen minae; and besides I had the conduct of sacred missions and ceremonial processions12 and other duties of the sort, for which my expenses have come to more than thirty minae. Of these sums that I have enumerated, had I chosen to limit my public services to the letter of the law, I should have spent not one quarter. [6] During the time when I had charge of a warship, my vessel was the best found in the whole armament. And I will tell you the surest evidence of that fact: at first Alcibiades,—I would have given a great deal to prevent his sailing with me, as he was neither my friend nor my relative nor a member of my tribe,—was aboard my ship. [7] Now I am sure you must be aware that, being a commander who was free to do as he pleased, he would never have gone aboard any but the best found vessel, when he was himself to have his part in the danger. When you removed those men from the command, [8] and selected the ten of whom Thrasyllus was one, these all wanted to sail on my ship; though, after much wrangling amongst them, it was Archestratus of Phrearrhe13 who came aboard. After his death at Mytilene, Erasinides sailed with me. I ask you, how much money do you think that a warship so well furnished must have cost me? [9] How much harm did it do to the enemy, and how much benefit to the city? The best proof is this: at the time when our ships were destroyed in the last sea-fight,14 and I had no commander on board with me,—I may mention this, as your anger on account of the disaster that occurred was shown even against those who had charge of the warships,—I not only brought away my own vessel, but I also saved that of Nausimachus of Phalerum. [10] And all this was the result, not of chance, but of my arrangements: for by making it worth his while I secured as my pilot for the whole time Phantias, who was esteemed the best in Greece; and also provided such a crew and complement of oarsmen as were suitable for him. That these statements of mine are true is fully known to all of you who were in the forces over there. But call Nausimachus to support them.“Testimony” [11]

So the vessels that were saved were twelve in number; and two were brought away for you by myself,—my own warship, and that of Nausimachus.

After so many dangers encountered in your defence, and after all the services that I have rendered to the city, I now request, not a boon for my reward, as others do, but that I be not deprived of my own property; for I consider it a disgrace to you also, to take it both with my will and against my will. [12] I do not mind so much having to lose my possessions; but I could not put up with an outrage, and the impression that it must produce on those who shirk their public services,—that while I get no credit for what I have spent on you, they prove to have been rightly advised in giving up to you no part of their own property. Now, if you will admit my plea, you will both vote what is just and choose what is to your own advantage. [13] Do but observe, gentlemen of the jury, how slender are the revenues of the State, and how even these are pilfered by their appointed guardians: you ought, therefore, to see the surest revenue for the State in the fortunes of those who are willing to perform public services. So, if you are well advised, you will take as great care of our property as of your own personal possessions, [14] knowing that you will be able to avail yourselves of all that we have, as you were in the past. And I think you are all aware that you will find me far superior, as controller of my property, to those who control for you the property of the State: whereas, if you impoverish me, you will wrong yourselves besides; others will divide it up amongst them, as they do the rest. [15]

You ought also to consider that it is far more fitting for you to give me of what is yours than to dispute my claim to what is mine, and to pity me if I am impoverished than to envy me my wealth: you should pray Heaven that the others may be as good citizens, so that, instead of coveting your money, they may spend their own on you. [16] In my opinion, gentlemen,—and let none of you take it ill,—there would be far more justice in your being declared by the Commissioners to be holding my property than in my being prosecuted now for holding Treasury funds. For my attitude towards the State is shown by the fact that, while I am frugal in the private use of my means, I delight in the discharge of my public duties: I take a pride, not in the residue that is left to me, but in the amounts that I have spent on you; [17] for I regard the latter as my own achievement, whereas my fortune was bequeathed to me by others, and if on account of this I unjustly incur the venal slander of my enemies, those expenses have justly earned my salvation at your hands. There is no good reason, therefore, why others should have interceded with you on my behalf: and indeed, if any of my friends had been involved in a similar suit, I might expect you to show me your gratitude; [18] and if I were being tried before another court I should look to you as the petitioners in my defence. For it can never be alleged that I have profited at your expense by the tenure of many offices, or that I have been the subject of disgraceful suits, or that I am guilty of any disgraceful act, or that I saw with delight the disasters of the city. In all my dealings, both private and public, I believe that I have shown such a character as a citizen, in a manner so well known to you, that I have no need to justify myself in those respects. [19] I therefore request you, gentlemen of the jury, to hold the same opinion of me now as you have held hitherto, and not only to remember my public services to the State, but also to bear in mind my private propensities. Consider that the most onerous of public services is to maintain throughout one's life an orderly and self-respecting behavior, neither overcome by pleasure nor elated by gain, but evincing such a character that one is free from complaint or the thought of a prosecution in the mind of any fellow-citizen. [20]

It is therefore unfair, gentlemen, that you should condemn me in deference to such accusers as these, who have gone this length in contesting the charge of their own impiety, and then, as they could never clear themselves of their own offences, they have the hardihood to accuse others. Nay, Cinesias,15 with the character that we know, has served in more campaigns than these men, who now show indignation at the city's plight! They make no contribution to any scheme for raising the fortunes of the city, but do their utmost to incense you against your benefactors. [21] Rather is it to be wished that they, gentlemen, might recount their own proceedings to you in Assembly; for I could not find a worse fate to invoke upon them. On my own part, I request, I beseech, I supplicate you not to condemn me for venality, nor to believe that any amount of money could make me wish any ill to befall the city. [22] For I should be a madman, gentlemen, if, after spending my patrimony upon you in the pursuit of distinction, I accepted bribes from others with the aim of injuring the State. I indeed, gentlemen, cannot think what judges I should prefer to you for the trial of my case, if one ought really to pray that the benefited should give decision upon their benefactors. [23] Furthermore, gentlemen,—for this is a point that I am anxious to mention,—never once when I had to perform a public service in your aid did I consider it a hardship that I should leave my children so much the poorer, but much rather that I should fail in the zealous discharge of my obligations. [24] Nor, whenever I was about to risk my life in our sea-fights, did I once pity or bewail or mention my wife or my children, nor think it hard that, if I lost my life in my country's cause, I should leave them orphaned and bereft of their father; but hard indeed it would be if I should save myself by a shameful act and fasten reproach on them as well as myself. [25] In return I ask from you the grace that I deserve, and I expect that, since I have shown such regard for you in times of danger, you in your present security will set a high value on me and these children, considering that it will be as disgraceful to you as terrible to us if we are to be compelled on such charges as these to lose our citizenship, or to be deprived of our present resources, and thus impoverished, and to wander about in sore straits and in a plight unworthy of ourselves and unworthy also of the services that you have received. Let it not be so, gentlemen of the jury, but decide on our acquittal, and continue to find in us the self-same kind of citizens as you have done in the past.

1 By the Council, in his eighteenth year: cf. Lys. 10.31.

2 411-410 B.C.

3 At the festival of Apollo and Artemis, held in the month Thargelion （May-June）.

4 410-409 B.C.

5 The pyrrhic was a kind of war-dance.

6 409-408 B.C.

7 A circular or dithyrambic chorus, usually associated with the worship of Dionysus.

8 405-404 B.C.

9 Torch-races were held in honor of Prometheus.

10 404-403 B.C.

11 A promontory in the south of Attica, on which there was a temple of Poseidon.

12 In this case, of maidens of the best families, who at the Panathenaea carried the sacred robe and other holy object as offerings to Athene.

13 A district of Attica.

14 At Aegospotami, 405 B.C.

15 A notorious coward; see Introd. p. xviii.

Many people have come to me, gentlemen of the jury, in surprise at my accusing the corn-dealers in the Council, and telling me that you, however sure you are of their guilt, none the less regard those who deliver speeches about them as slander-mongers.1 I therefore propose to speak first of the grounds on which I have found it necessary to accuse them. [2]

When the Committee2 of the time brought up their case before the Council, the anger felt against them was such that some of the orators said that they ought to be handed over without trial to the Eleven, for the penalty of death. But I, thinking it monstrous that the Council should get into the way of such practice, rose and said that in my opinion we ought to try the corn-dealers in accordance with the law; for I thought that if they had committed acts deserving of death you would be no less able than we3 to come to a just decision, while, if they were not guilty, they ought not to perish without trial. [3] After the Council adopted this view, attempts were made to discredit me by saying that I hoped to save the corn-dealers by these remarks. Now before the Council, when the case came up for their hearing,4 I justified myself in a practical way: while the rest kept quiet, I rose and accused these men, and made it evident to all that my remarks were not made in their defence, but in support of the established laws. [4] Well, these were my reasons for beginning my task, in fear of those incriminations; but I consider it would be disgraceful to leave off before you have given such verdict upon them as you may prefer. [5]

So, first of all, go up on the dais.5 Tell me, sir, are you a resident alien? Yes. Do you reside as an alien to obey the city's laws, or to do just as you please? To obey. Must you not, then, expect to be put to death, if you have committed a breach of the laws for which death is the penalty? I must. Then answer me: do you acknowledge that you bought up corn in excess of the fifty measures6 which the law sets as the limit? I bought it up on an order from the magistrates. [6]

Well now, gentlemen, if he proves that there is a law which orders the corn-dealers to buy up the corn on an order from the magistrates, acquit him: if not, it is just that you should condemn him. For we have produced to you the law which forbids anyone in the city to buy up corn in excess of fifty measures. [7]

This accusation of mine should have sufficed, gentlemen of the jury, since this man acknowledges that he bought up the corn, while the law clearly forbids him to do so; and you have sworn to decide in accordance with the laws. Nevertheless, in order that you may be convinced that they are actually traducing the magistrates, it is necessary to speak of them at some greater length. [8] For since these men shifted the blame on to them, we called the magistrates before us and questioned them. Two of them denied any knowledge of the matter; but Anytus stated that in the previous winter, as the corn was dear, and these men were outbidding each other and fighting amongst themselves, he had advised them to cease their competition, judging it beneficial to you, their customers, that they should purchase at as reasonable a price as possible: for they were bound, in selling, to add no more than an obol to the price. [9] Now, that he did not order them to buy up the corn for holding in store,7 but only advised them not to buy against each other, I will produce to you Anytus himself as witness.“Testimony”

These statements were made by him in the time of the former Council, whereas these men evidently bought up the corn in the time of the present one. [10]

So now you have heard that it was not on an order from the magistrates that they bought up the corn; yet, in my opinion, however true their statements may be on these points, they will not be clearing themselves, but only accusing the magistrates. For where we have laws expressly drafted for the case, surely punishment should fall alike on those who disobey them and on those who order an infringement of them. [11]

But in fact, gentlemen of the jury, I believe they will not have recourse to this argument, but will repeat, perhaps, what they said before the Council, — that it was in kindness to the city that they bought up the corn, so that they might sell it to you at as reasonable a price as possible. But I will give you a very strong and signal proof that they are lying. [12] If they were doing this for your benefit, they ought to have been found selling it at the same price for a number of days, until the stock that they had bought up was exhausted. But in fact they were selling at a profit of a drachma8 several times in the same day, as though they were buying by the medimnus9 at a time. I adduce you as witnesses of this. [13] And it seems to me a strange thing that, when they have to contribute to a special levy of which everyone is to have knowledge, they refuse, making poverty their pretext; but illegal acts, for which death is the penalty, and in which secrecy was important to them, — these they assert that they committed in kindness to you. Yet you are all aware that they are the last persons to whom such statements are appropriate. [14] For their interests are the opposite of other men's: they make most profit when, on some bad news reaching the city, they sell their corn at a high price. And they are so delighted to see your disasters that they either get news of them in advance of anyone else, or fabricate the rumor themselves; now it is the loss of your ships in the Black Sea, now the capture of vessels on their outward voyage by the Lacedaemonians, now the blockade of your trading ports, or the impending rupture of the truce; and they have carried their enmity to such lengths that they choose the same critical moments as your foes to overreach you. [15] For, just when you find yourselves worst off for corn, these persons snap it up and refuse to sell it, in order to prevent our disputing about the price: we are to be glad enough if we come away from them with a purchase made at any price, however high. And thus at times, although there is peace, we are besieged by these men. [16] So long is it now that the city has been convinced of their knavery and disaffection that, while for the sale of all other commodities you have appointed the market-clerks as controllers, for this trade alone you elect special corn-controllers by lot; and often you have been known to inflict the extreme penalty on those officials, who were citizens, for having failed to defeat the villainy of these men. Now, what should be your treatment of the actual offenders, when you put to death even those who are unable to control them? [17]

You should reflect that it is impossible for you to vote an acquittal. For if you reject the charge, when they admit that they are combining against the traders, you will be regarded as aiming a blow at the importers. If they were putting up some other defence, nobody could censure a verdict for acquittal; for it rests with you to choose which side you are to believe. But, as matters stand, your action cannot but be thought extraordinary, if you dismiss unpunished those who confess to breaking the law. [18] Remember, gentlemen of the jury, that many in the past have met this charge with denial, and have produced witnesses; yet you have condemned them to death because you gave more credence to the statements of their accusers. But surely it would be astounding if, in passing judgement on the same offences, you are more eager to punish those who deny! [19] And, moreover, gentlemen, I conceive it is obvious to you all that suits of this kind are of the closest concern to the people of our city; and hence they will inquire what view you take of such matters, in the belief that, if you condemn these men to death, the rest will be brought to better order; while if you dismiss them unpunished, you will have voted them full licence to do just as they please. [20] You must chastise them, gentlemen, not only on account of the past, but also to give an example for the future: even so these people will be barely tolerable. Consider that great numbers in this business have been tried for their lives: so much profit do they make by it that they choose rather to risk death every day than to cease making illicit gain out of you. [21] Nay, more, not even if they implore and beseech you, would you be justified in taking pity on them: far rather ought you to pity those of our citizens who perished by their villainy, and the traders against whom they have combined. These you will gratify and render more zealous by punishing the accused. Otherwise, what do you suppose their feelings will be, when they learn that you have acquitted the retailers who confessed to overreaching the importers? [22]

I do not see what more there is to say when suits against other malefactors are heard, you have to get your information from the accusers; whereas the villainy of these men is understood by you all. So, you convict them, you will both do justice and buy your corn at a fairer price: otherwise, it will be dearer.

1 i.e., men who, knowing the dealers were unpopular, brought charges against them hoping to be bought off. Cf. Lys. 24.2, note.

2 Fifty of the five hundred members of the Council appointed for the management of the Assembly during a tenth part of the year.

3 i.e., the Council.

4 As a preliminary to the trial proper.

5 One of the corn-dealers is made to go up on the ”bema“ and is questioned. Cf. Lys. 12.25; Lys. 13.30.

6 A “basket” or measure was about a bushel and a half.

7 i.e., until the price was raised to their advantage.

8 i.e., six times the legal profit on each measure.

9 About the same as the phormus in Lys. 22.5.

To speak at length upon this matter, gentlemen of the jury, is both beyond my powers and, to my mind, unnecessary; but that I am correct in obtaining leave for my suit against this man Pancleon as being no Plataean, I will attempt to prove to you. [2]

As he continued to injure me for a long time, I went to the fuller's where he was working and summoned him before the Polemarch,1 supposing him to be a resident alien. On his stating that he was a Plataean, I asked to what township he belonged, since one of my witnesses there advised me to summon him also before the court of the tribe of which he might pretend to be a member. When he replied “to Decelea,” I summoned him before the court of tribe Hippothontis; [3] I then went and asked at barber's in the street of the Hermae,2 where the Deceleans resort, and I inquired of such Deceleans as I could discover if they knew a certain Pancleon belonging to the township of Decelea. As nobody spoke to knowing him, and I learnt that he was then a defendant in some other suits before the Polemarch, and had been cast in some, I took proceedings on my own part. [4]

So now, in the first place, I will produce to you as witnesses some Deceleans whom I questioned, and after them the other persons who have taken proceedings against him before the Polemarch and have obtained a conviction,—as many as chance to be present. Please stop the water.3“Witnesses” [5]

Relying on this evidence I took proceedings against him before the Polemarch: but he then put in a demurrer against the admissibility of my suit; and as I felt it important to avoid any imputation of oppressive aims, instead of a desire to get satisfaction for my wrongs, I first asked Euthycritus, whom I knew as the oldest citizen of Plataea and whom I supposed to be best informed, whether he knew a certain Pancleon, son of Hipparmodorus, a Plataean. [6] Then, on his answering me that he knew Hipparmodorus, but was not aware of his having any son, either Pancleon or any other, I went on to ask all the other persons whom I knew as Plataeans. Well, they were all ignorant of his name; but they told me that I should get the most definite information if I went to the fresh-cheese market on the last day of the month: for on that day in each month the Plataeans collected there. [7] So I went on that day to the cheese market and inquired of the people if they knew a certain Pancleon, their fellow-citizen. They all denied knowledge of him, except one who said that, although he knew no citizen of that name, there was a slave of his own called Pancleon, who had deserted, [8] and he told me his age and his business, which is that of this man. To show the truth of all this, I will produce as witnesses Euthycritus whom I questioned first, all the other Plataeans to whom I applied, and the man who said he was this person's master. So please stop the water.“Witnesses” [9]

Well then, not many days later, I saw this man Pancleon being arrested by Nicomedes, who has testified to being his master; and I went up to them, desiring to know what it could be that was going to done with him. So, when they had ceased fighting some of his witnesses said that he had a brother who would vindicate him as a freeman: [10] on this understanding they gave security for producing him the morrow, and departed and went their way. On the following day, in view of the present demurrer and the suit itself, I decided that I ought to appear there with witnesses, in order that I might know the man who was to vindicate him, and what plea he would urge for his discharge. Now, as regards the condition on which security was taken for his release, neither a brother nor anyone else appeared; but a woman asserted that he was her slave, in dispute of Nicomedes' claim, and she said that she would not allow him to be arrested. [11] Well, to recount all that was spoken in that place would make this a long story; but with such violence did his supporters and the man himself behave that, while Nicomedes on his part, and the woman on hers, were both willing to let him go if somebody should either vindicate him as a freeman or arrest him on the claim of owning him as a slave, they did nothing of the sort, but carried him off and departed. Now, to prove that security was taken for him on that condition the day before, and that they then carried him off with them by force, I will produce to you witnesses. So please stop the water.“Witnesses” [12]

It is easy, then, to make sure that even Pancleon himself, far from regarding himself as a Plataean, does not suppose himself to be even a freeman. For when a man has chosen, on being carried off by force, to make his own associates liable to action for assault rather than to be vindicated as a freeman by legal process and to get damages from those who were arresting him, nobody can have difficulty in perceiving that he was so conscious of his being a slave that he was afraid to provide guarantors and to face a trial concerning his civil status. [13]

Now, that he is far from being a Plataean, I think you perceive pretty clearly from these statements; and that even the man himself, who is most fully aware of his own position, did not expect you to believe that he was a Plataean, will be readily impressed on you by his own conduct. For in his counter-deposition at the proceedings brought against him by Aristodicus, here present, when he contended that his case did not lie before the Polemarch, he was declared on evidence4 not to be a Plataean. [14] But although he denounced this witness, he did not pursue the matter, but allowed Aristodicus to obtain a verdict against him. And when he failed to pay on the appointed date, he discharged the debt on such terms as he could arrange. To prove the truth of all this, I will produce to you witnesses. So please stop the water.“Witnesses” [15]

Now, before making this agreement with him, he had removed from the city through fear of Aristodicus, and was living as an alien in Thebes. But I think you understand that, if he was a Plataean, he might be expected to live as an alien anywhere rather than in Thebes. Well, to prove that he lived there a long time, I will produce to you witnesses. So please stop the water.“Witnesses” [16]

I consider, gentlemen of the jury, that the statements I have made are sufficient. For if you will bear the whole of them in mind, I know that you will give the just and true decision, which is all I ask of you.

1 The third archon, who had to decide whether proceedings should be taken against an alien.

2 These figures stood in a covered way beside the marketplace.

3 Which ran from a globe, measuring the time allotted to the speaker, and was stopped during the reading or speaking of evidence.

4 In certain disputes the evidence itself sufficed for the decision, unless the convicted person could incriminate the witness: the first step to this was a denunciation ἐπίσκηψις.

I can almost find it in me to be grateful to my accuser, gentlemen of the Council, for having involved me in these proceedings. For previously I had no excuse for rendering an account of my life; but now, owing to this man, I have got one. So I will try to show you in my speech that this man is lying, and that my own life until this day has been deserving of praise rather than envy; for it is merely from envy, in my opinion, that he has involved me in this ordeal. [2] But I ask you, if a man envies those whom other people pity, from what villainy do you think such a person would refrain? Is it possible that he hopes to get money by slandering me?1 And if he makes me out an enemy on whom he seeks to be avenged, he lies; for his villainy has always kept me from having any dealings with him either as a friend or as an enemy. [3] So now, gentlemen, it is clear that he envies me because, although I have to bear this sore misfortune, I am a better citizen than he is. For indeed I consider, gentlemen, that one ought to remedy the afflictions of the body with the activities of the spirit; for if I am to keep my thoughts and the general tenor of my life on the level of my misfortune, how shall I be distinguished from this man? [4]

Well, in regard to those matters, let these few words of mine suffice: I will now speak as briefly as I can on the points with which I am here concerned. My accuser says that I have no right to receive my civil pension, because I am able-bodied and not classed as disabled, and because I am skilled in a trade which would enable me to live without this grant. [5] In proof of my bodily strength, he instances that I mount on horseback; of the affluence arising from my trade, that I am able to associate with people who have means to spend. Now, as to the affluence from my trade and the nature of my livelihood in general, I think you are all acquainted with these: I will, however, make some brief remarks of my own. [6] My father left me nothing, and I have only ceased supporting my mother on her decease two years ago; while as yet I have no children to take care of me. I possess a trade that can give me but slight assistance: I already find difficulty in carrying it on myself, and as yet I am unable to procure someone to relieve me of the work.2 I have no other income besides this dole, and if you deprive me of it I might be in danger of finding myself in the most grievous plight. [7] Do not, therefore, gentlemen, when you can save me justly, ruin me unjustly; what you granted me when I was younger and stronger, do not take from me when I am growing older and weaker; nor, with your previous reputation for showing the utmost compassion even towards those who are in no trouble, be moved now by this man to deal harshly with those who are objects of pity even to their enemies; nor, by having the heart to wrong me, cause everyone else in my situation to despond. [8] And indeed, how extraordinary the case would be, gentlemen! When my misfortune was but simple, I am found to have been receiving this pension; but now, when old age, diseases, and the ills that attend on them are added to my trouble, I am to be deprived of it! [9] The depth of my poverty, I believe, can be revealed more clearly by my accuser than by anyone else on earth. For if I were charged with the duty of producing tragic drama, and should challenge him to an exchange of property,3 he would prefer being the producer ten times over to making the exchange once. Surely it is monstrous that he should now accuse me of having such great affluence that I can consort on equal terms with the wealthiest people, while, in the event of such a thing as I have suggested, he should make that choice. Why, what could be more villainous? [10]

As to my horsemanship, which he has dared to mention to you, feeling neither awe of fortune nor shame before you, there is not much to tell. For I, gentlemen, am of opinion that all who suffer from some affliction make it their single aim and constant study to manage the condition that has befallen them with the least amount of discomfort. I am such an one, and in the misfortune that has stricken me I have devised this facility for myself on the longer journeys that I find necessary. [11] But the strongest proof, gentlemen, of the fact that I mount horses because of my misfortune, and not from insolence, as this man alleges, is this: if I were a man of means, I should ride on a saddled mule, and would not mount other men's horses. But in fact, as I am unable to acquire anything of the sort, I am compelled, now and again, to use other men's horses. [12] Well, I ask you, gentlemen, is it not extraordinary that, if he saw me riding on a saddled mule, he would hold his peace,—for what could he say?4—and then, because I mount borrowed horses, he should try to persuade you that I am able-bodied; and that my using two sticks, while others use one, should not be argued by him against me as a sign of being able-bodied, but my mounting horses should be advanced by him as a proof to you that I am able-bodied? For I use both aids for the same reason. [13]

So utterly has he surpassed the whole human race in impudence that he tries with his single voice to persuade you all that I am not classed as disabled. Yet if he should persuade any of you on this point, gentlemen, what hinders me from drawing a lot for election as one of the nine archons,5 and you from depriving me of my obol as having sound health, and voting it unanimously to this man as being a cripple? For surely, after you have deprived a man of the grant as being able-bodied, the law officers are not going to debar this same person, as being disabled, from drawing a lot! [14] Nay, indeed, you are not of the same opinion as he is, nor is he either, and rightly so. For he has come here to dispute over my misfortune as if over an heiress, and he tries to persuade you that I am not the sort of man that you all see me to be; but you —as is incumbent on men of good sense —have rather to believe your own eyes than this person's words. [15]

He says that I am insolent, savage, and utterly abandoned in my behavior, as though he needed the use of terrifying terms to speak the truth, and could not do it in quite gentle language. But I expect you, gentlemen, to distinguish clearly between those people who are at liberty to be insolent and those who are debarred from it. [16] For insolence is not likely to be shown by poor men laboring in the utmost indigence, but by those who possess far more than the necessaries of life; nor by men disabled in body, but by those who have most reason to rely on their own strength; nor by those already advanced in years, but by those who are still young and have a youthful turn of mind. [17] For the wealthy purchase with their money escape from the risks that they run, whereas the poor are compelled to moderation by the pressure of their want. The young are held to merit indulgence from their elders; but if their elders are guilty of offence, both ages unite in reproaching them. [18] The strong are at liberty to insult whomsoever they will with impunity, but the weak are unable either to beat off their aggressors when insulted, or to get the better of their victims if they choose to insult. Hence it seems to me that my accuser was not serious in speaking of my insolence, but was only jesting; his purpose was, not to persuade you that such is my nature, but to set me in a comic light, as a fine stroke of fancy. [19]

He further asserts that my shop is the meeting place of a number of rogues who have spent their own money and hatch plots against those who wish to preserve theirs. But you must all take note that these statements of his are no more accusations against me than against anyone else who has a trade, nor against those who visit my shop any more than those who frequent other men of business. [20] For each of you is in the habit of paying a call at either a perfumer's or a barber's or a shoemaker's shop, or wherever he may chance to go, —in most cases, it is to the tradesmen who have set up nearest the marketplace, and in fewest, to those who are farthest from it. So if any of you should brand with roguery the men who visit my shop, clearly you must do the same to those who pass their time in the shops of others; and if to them, to all the Athenians: for you are all in the habit of paying a call and passing your time at some shop or other. [21]

But really I see no need for me to be so very particular in rebutting each one of the statements that he has made, and to weary you any longer. For if I have argued the principal points, what need is there to dwell seriously on trifles in the same way as he does? But I beg you all, gentlemen of the Council, to hold the same views concerning me as you have held till now. [22] Do not be led by this man to deprive me of the sole benefit in my country of which fortune has granted me a share, nor let this one person prevail on you to withdraw now what you all agreed to grant me in the past. For, gentlemen, since Heaven had deprived us6 of the chiefest things, the city voted us this pension, regarding the chances of evil and of good as the same for all alike. [23] Surely I should be the most miserable of creatures if, after being deprived by my misfortune of the fairest and greatest things, the accuser should cause me the loss of that which the city bestowed in her thoughtful care for men in my situation. No, no, gentlemen; you must not vote that way. And why should I find you thus inclined? [24] Because anyone has ever been brought to trial at my instance and lost his fortune? There is nobody who can prove it. Well, is it that I am a busybody, a hot head, a seeker of quarrels? [25] That is not the sort of use I happen to make of such means of subsistence as I have. That I am grossly insolent and savage? Even he would not allege this himself, except he should wish to add one more to the series of his lies. Or that I was in power at the time of the Thirty, and oppressed a great number of the citizens? But I went into exile with your people to Chalcis,7 and when I was free to live secure as a citizen with those persons8 I chose to depart and share your perils. [26] I therefore ask you, gentlemen of the Council, not to treat me, a man who has committed no offence, in the same way as those who are guilty of numerous wrongs, but to give the same vote as the other Councils9 did on my case, remembering that I am neither rendering an account of State moneys placed in my charge, nor undergoing now an inquiry into my past proceedings in any office, but that the subject of this speech of mine is merely an obol. [27] In this way you will all give the decision that is just, while I, in return for that, will feel duly grateful to you; and this man will learn in the future not to scheme against those who are weaker than himself, but only to overreach his equals.

1 A poor man like the speaker was not the natural prey of a slander-monger, who would hope to be bought off by a wealthy defendant.

2 He means a slave who would learn the business and carry it on for him.

3 See note on Lys. 3.20. （A wealthy citizen, such as the speaker here, had to undertake certain public services, which he could only avoid by challenging some other citizen, whom he considered wealthier than himself, either to exchange his property with him, or to undertake the service.）

4 It would be natural for a cripple to ride about on a cheaply hired mule, if only he could afford it.

5 The archons were appointed by lot from all the citizens, rich or poor, except, apparently, those who were formally classed as infirm.

6 The speaker here solemnly appeals for himself as one of an unfortunate class.

7 In Euboea, 404 B.C.

8 i.e., the Thirty.

9 i.e., the Councils of previous years by which he had been certified as infirm.

I can find full excuse for you, gentlemen of the jury, if on hearing such statements and remembering past events you are equally incensed against all those who remained in the city. But I am surprised at my accusers: they neglect their own concerns to attend to those of others, and now, though they know for certain who are guilty of nothing and who have committed many offences, they seek to persuade you into holding this same opinion about us all. [2] Now, if they conceive that they have charged me with everything that the city has suffered at the hands of the Thirty, I consider them to be speakers of no ability; for they have not mentioned so much as a small fraction of what has been perpetrated by those men. But if their statements imply that I had any connection with those things, I shall prove that their words are nothing but lies, and that on my part I behaved as the best citizen in the Peiraeus would have done, if he had remained in the city. [3] I beg you, gentlemen, not to share the views of the slander-mongers. Their business is to inculpate even those who have committed no offence, —for it is out of them especially that they would make money,1—while yours is to allow an equal enjoyment of civic rights to those who have done no wrong; for in this way you will secure to the established constitution the greatest number of allies. [4] And I claim, gentlemen, if I am found to have been the cause of none of our disasters, but rather to have performed many services to the State with both my person and my purse, that at any rate I should have that support from you which is the just desert, not merely of those who have served you well, but also of those who have done you no wrong. [5] Now, I consider that I have a strong justification in the fact that, if my accusers were able to convict me of wrongdoing in private life, they would not charge me with the misdeeds of the Thirty: they would not see occasion to traduce others on the score of what those persons have perpetrated, but only to requite the actual wrongdoers. But in fact they conceive that your resentment against those men is sufficient to involve in their ruin those who have done no harm at all. [6] I, however, hold that, just as it would be unfair, when some men have been the source of many benefits to the city, to let others carry off the reward of your honors or your thanks, so it is unreasonable, when some have continually done you harm, that their acts should bring reproach and slander upon those who have done no wrong. The city has enough enemies already existing, who count it a great gain to have people brought up on slanderous charges. [7]

I will now try to explain to you who of the citizens are inclined, in my view, to court oligarchy, and who democracy. This will serve as a basis both for your decision and for the defence that I shall offer for myself; for I shall make it evident that neither under the democracy nor under the oligarchy has my conduct suggested any inclination to be disloyal to your people. [8] Now, first of all, you should reflect that no human being is naturally either an oligarch or a democrat: whatever constitution a man finds advantageous to himself, he is eager to see that one established; so it largely depends on you whether the present system finds an abundance of supporters. That this is the truth, you will have no difficulty in deducing from the events of the past. [9] For consider, gentlemen of the jury, how many times the leaders of both governments2 changed sides. Did not Phrynichus, Peisander and their fellow demagogues, when they had committed many offences against you, proceed, in fear of the requital that they deserved, to establish the first oligarchy? And did not many of the Four Hundred, again, join in the return of the Peiraeus party, while some, on the other hand, who had helped in the expulsion of the Four Hundred, actually appeared among the Thirty? Some, too, of those who had enlisted for Eleusis marched out with you to besiege their own comrades! [10] There is thus no difficulty in concluding, gentlemen, that the questions dividing men are concerned, not with politics, but with their personal advantage. You should therefore apply this test in the probation of your citizens: examine their use of the citizenship under the democracy, and inquire whether they stood to benefit by a change in the government. In this way you will most justly form your decision upon them. [11] Now, in my opinion, all those who had been disfranchised under the democracy, or deprived of their property, or subjected to any other misfortune of the sort, were bound to desire a different system, in the hope that the change would be some benefit to themselves. But in the case of those who have done the people many good services, and never a single hurt, and who deserve your grateful favors instead of punishment for what they have achieved, it is not fair to harbor the slanders aimed at them, not even if all who have charge of public affairs allege that they favor oligarchy. [12]

Now I, gentlemen of the jury, never suffered any misfortune during that time,3 either private or public, which could lead me, through eagerness to be relieved of present ills, to court a change in our system. I have equipped a warship five times, fought in four sea-battles, contributed to many war levies, and performed my other public services as amply as any citizen. [13] But my purpose in spending more than was enjoined upon me by the city was to raise myself the higher in your opinion, so that if any misfortune should chance to befall me I might defend myself on better terms. Of all this credit I was deprived under the oligarchy; for instead of regarding those who had bestowed some benefit on the people as worthy recipients of their favors, they placed in positions of honor the men who had done you most harm, as though this were a pledge by which they held us bound. You ought all to reflect on those facts and refuse to believe the statements of these men: you should rather judge each person by the record of his actions. [14]

For I, gentlemen, was not one of the Four Hundred: I challenge anyone who wishes amongst my accusers to come forward and convict me of this. Neither, again, will anyone prove that, when the Thirty were established, I sat on the Council or held any office. Surely, if I chose not to hold office when I could have done so, I deserve to be honored by you today. If, on their part, the men who were in power at that time preferred not to give me a place in the government, could I find a more signal proof than this of the falsehood of my accusers? [15]

Furthermore, gentlemen of the jury, you ought also to take account of the rest of my conduct. For amid the misfortunes of the city my behavior was such that, if everyone had been of one mind with me, not one of you would have experience of a single misfortune. I had no hand during the oligarchy, you will find, either in the arrest of anybody, or in taking vengeance upon any of my enemies, or in conferring a favor on any of my friends, [16] —and in that there is nothing to wonder at, for at that time it was difficult to confer favors, though an act of mischief was easy for anyone who wished. Again, you will find that I did not place the name of a single Athenian on the black list,4 or obtain a decree of arbitration against anyone, or enrich myself by means of your misfortunes. Yet surely, if you are incensed against the authors of your past troubles, it is reasonable that those who have done no mischief should stand the higher in your opinion. [17] And indeed, gentlemen of the jury, I consider that I have given the democracy the strongest pledge of my attachment. For if I did no mischief at that time, when ample licence for it was allowed, surely I shall now make every effort to be a good citizen in the full knowledge that, if I am guilty of wrong, I shall incur immediate punishment. But in fact I have continually held to this resolve, —under an oligarchy, not to covet the property of others, and under a democracy, to spend my own upon you with zeal. [18]

I consider, gentlemen, that you would not be justified in hating those who have suffered nothing under the oligarchy, when you can indulge your wrath against those who have done your people mischief; or in regarding as enemies those who did not go into exile instead of those who expelled you, or those who were anxious to save their own property instead of those who stripped others of theirs, or those who stayed in the city with a view to their own safety instead of those who took part in the government for the purpose of destroying others. If you think it your duty to destroy the men whom they passed over, not one of the citizens will be left to us. [19]

You ought also to take account of this further point, gentlemen of the jury: you are all aware that under the previous democracy there were many in the ministry who robbed the Treasury; while some accepted bribes at your expense, and others by malicious informations estranged your allies.5 Now, if the Thirty had kept their punishments for these cases, you would have held them yourselves to be honest men: but when in fact you found them deliberately oppressing the people because of the offences of those persons, you were indignant; for you considered it monstrous that the crimes of the few should be spread over the whole city. [20] It is not right, therefore, that you should resort to those offences which you saw them committing, or regard those deeds, which you deemed unjust when done to you, as just when you do them to others. No: let your feeling towards us after your restoration be the same as you had towards yourselves in your exile; for by this means you will produce the utmost harmony amongst us, the power of the city will be at its highest, and you will vote for what will be most distressing to your enemies. [21]

And you should reflect, gentlemen, on the events that have occurred under the Thirty, in order that the errors of your enemies may lead you to take better counsel on your own affairs. For as often as you heard that the people in the city were all of one mind, you had but slight hopes of your return, judging that our concord was the worst of signs for your exile: [22] but as soon as you had tidings that the Three Thousand were divided by faction, that the rest of the citizens had been publicly banned from the city, that the Thirty were not all of one mind, and that those who had fears for you outnumbered those who were making war on you, you immediately began to look forward to your return and the punishment of your enemies. For it was your prayer to the gods that those men should do the things that you saw them doing, since you believed that the villainy of the Thirty would be far more useful for your salvation than the resources of the exiles for your return. [23] You ought therefore, gentlemen, to take the events of the past as your example in resolving on the future course of things, and to account those men the best democrats who, desiring your concord, abide by their oaths and covenants, because they hold this to be the most effective safeguard of the city and the severest punishment of her enemies. For nothing could be more vexatious to them than to learn that we are taking part in the government and to perceive at the same time that the citizens are behaving as though they had never had any fault to find with each other. [24] And you should know, gentlemen, that the exiles desire to see the greatest possible number of their fellow citizens not merely slandered but disfranchised; since they hope that the men who are wronged by you will be their allies, and they would gladly have the venal informers standing high in your esteem and influential in the city. For they judge the villainy of those creatures to be their own safeguard. [25]

You will do well to remember also the events that followed the rule of the Four Hundred6; for you will fully realize that the measures advised by these men have never brought you any advantage, while those that I recommend have always profited both parties in the State. You know that Epigenes, Demophanes and Cleisthenes, while reaping their personal gains from the city's misfortunes, have inflicted the heaviest losses on the public weal. [26] For they prevailed on you to condemn several men to death without trial, to confiscate unjustly the property of many more, and to banish and disfranchise other citizens; since they were capable of taking money for the release of offenders, and of appearing before you to effect the ruin of the innocent. They did not stop until they had involved the city in seditions and the gravest disasters, while raising themselves from poverty to wealth. [27] But your temper moved you to welcome back the exiles, to reinstate the disfranchised in their rights, and to bind yourselves by oaths to concord with the rest. At the end of it all, you would have been more pleased to punish those who traded in slander under the democracy than those who held office under the oligarchy. And with good reason, gentlemen: for it is manifest now to all that the unjust acts of rulers in an oligarchy produce democracy, whereas the trade of slanderers in the democracy has twice led to the establishment of oligarchy. It is not right, therefore, to hearken many times to the counsels of men whose advice has not even once resulted in your profit. [28]

And you should consider that, in the Peiraeus party, those who are in highest repute, who have run the greatest risk, and who have rendered you the most services, had often before exhorted your people to abide by their oaths and covenants, since they held this to be the bulwark of democracy: for they felt that it would give the party of the town immunity from the consequences of the past,7 and the party of the Peiraeus an assurance of the most lasting permanence of the constitution. [29] For these are the men whom you would be far more justified in trusting than those who, as exiles, owed their deliverance to others and, now that they have returned, are taking up the slanderer's trade. In my opinion, gentlemen of the jury, those among our people remaining in the city who shared my views have clearly proved, both under oligarchy and under democracy, what manner of citizens they are. [30] But the men who give us good cause to wonder what they would have done if they had been allowed to join the Thirty are the men who now, in a democracy, imitate those rulers; who have made a rapid advance from poverty to wealth, and who hold a number of offices without rendering an account of any; who instead of concord have created mutual suspicion, and who have declared war instead of peace; and who have caused us to be distrusted by the Greeks. [31] Authors of all these troubles and of many more besides, and differing no whit from the Thirty, —save that the latter pursued the same ends as theirs during an oligarchy, while these men follow their example in a democracy, —they yet make it their business to maltreat in this light fashion any person they may wish, as though everyone else were guilty, and they had proved themselves men of the highest virtue. [32] （Nay, it is not so much they who give cause for wonder as you, who suppose that there is a democracy, whereas things are done just as they please, and punishment falls, not on those who have injured your people, but on those who refuse to yield their own possessions.） And they would sooner have the city diminished than raised to greatness and freedom by others: [33] they consider that their perils in the Peiraeus give them licence now to do just as they please, while, if later on you obtain deliverance through others, they themselves will be swept away, and those others will be advanced in power. So they combine to obstruct any efforts that others may make for your benefit. [34] But their purpose is readily detected by any observer: for they are not anxious to hide themselves, but are rather ashamed not to be reputed villains; while you partly see the mischief for yourselves, and partly hear it from many other persons. As for us, gentlemen, we consider that you are bound by your duty towards all the citizens to abide by your covenants and your oaths: [35]

nevertheless, when we see justice done upon the authors of your troubles, we remember your former experiences, and condone you; but when you show yourselves openly chastising the innocent along with the guilty, by the same vote you will be involving us all in suspicion.8 …

1 An inoffensive, peaceable man would usually prefer paying an informer blackmail to undergoing the trouble and risk of a legal action. Cf. Xen. Mem. 2.9.1.

2 The oligarchy of the Four Hundred and the despotism of the Thirty.

3 The six years between the restoration of the democracy in 410 B.C. and the tyranny of the Thirty in 404 B.C.

4 The Thirty drew up a list of citizens, other than the privileged 3000, who were suspected of opposing or disapproving the violent measures of the cabal.

5 For this kind of mischief-making cf. Isoc. 15.318.

6 June-September, 411 B.C.

7 Those who had remained in Athens under the Thirty were for long held in suspicion by the restored democrats.

8 The speaker seems to be accusing the democratic leaders of persecuting citizens who had shown oligarchic sympathies and who ought now to be protected by the oaths of concord that had been sworn by the two parties.

… nor expecting that now, after this lapse of time, they will be strict in their scrutiny, since you are conscious of having committed many grievous offences against them; but these, you believe, some of them have forgotten, and will not even recall them to mind. Well, for my part I am quite indignant that he should come before you in the confidence of this hope, as though the persons whom he had wronged were different and distinct from those who are to give their verdict on these matters, and as though it were not the same people that have been his victims and are also to be his hearers. It is yourselves who are responsible for this: [2] for you do not bear in mind that these men, when the city was subject to the Lacedaemonians, did not vouchsafe you a share even in the common slavery, but actually expelled you from the city; while you, after setting her free, made them partakers, not only in that freedom, but also in the judicature and in the public business of the Assembly. They have some reason, then, for thus convicting you of fatuity. [3] This man is one of them, and he is not content to be allowed to share these rights, but claims as well, before paying the penalty for those actions, to hold office once more.

I am informed that today he will make but a brief reply to the charges brought against him, skimming over the facts and shuffling off the accusation with his defence; and he will tell how he and his family have spent a great amount on the State, have performed public services with ardent zeal, and have won many brilliant victories1 under the democracy; that he himself is an orderly person, and is not seen acting as others of our people venture to act, but prefers to mind his own business. [4] But I find no difficulty in countering those statements. As regards the public services, I say that his father would have done better not to perform them than to spend so much of his substance: for it was on account of this that he won the confidence of the people and overthrew the democracy; and so our memory of these deeds must be more abiding than of the offerings he has set up2 in record of those services. [5] As to his love of quiet, I say that we ought not to investigate his sobriety today, when there is no chance for him to be licentious: we should rather examine that period in which, being free to choose either way of life, he preferred to mark his citizenship by illegal acts. For the fact of his committing no offences now is due to those who have prevented him; but what he did then was owing to the man's character and to those who vouchsafed him a free hand. So that if he claims to pass the scrutiny on this score, you should form this conception of the case, if you would not seem fatuous in his sight. [6]

And if they have recourse to the further argument that time does not allow of your electing another man, and that his failure to pass your scrutiny must inevitably leave the ancestral sacrifices unperformed, you should reflect that the time has already long gone by. For tomorrow is the last remaining day of the year, and on that day a sacrifice is offered to Zeus the Saviour, when it is impossible to complete a panel of jurymen in defiance of the laws.3 [7] If all these difficulties are the contrivance of this man, what are we to expect, when once he has passed the scrutiny, of the man who will have persuaded the outgoing magistrates to commit an illegality in his interest? Will he contrive just a few things of this sort in the course of a year? For my part, I think not. [8] But you have to consider, not this question alone, but whether piety is better served by the sacrifices on behalf of the future magistrate being offered by the king-archon and his fellow-magistrates,—as has in fact been done in the past,—or by this man, whom those who know about him have testified to be not even without stained hands4; and whether you have sworn to install a magistrate who has not passed the scrutiny or, after holding the scrutiny, to crown the man who is worthy of the office? [9] That is what you have to consider. Reflect also on the fact that the author of the law concerning scrutinies had chiefly in view the magistrates of the oligarchy; for he thought it monstrous that the men responsible for the overthrow of the democracy should regain office under that very constitution, and get control over the laws and over the city of which they had formerly taken charge only to maim her with such shameful and terrible injuries. Hence it is not right to be careless of the scrutiny, or to make it of so slight account as to ignore it: no, you should keep guard over it; for on the just title of each magistrate depends the safety of the government and of your whole people. [10] Suppose that he were now under scrutiny for admission to the Council, and he had his name registered on the tablets as having served in the cavalry under the Thirty: even without an accuser you would reject him. And now, when he is found, not merely to have served in the cavalry and on the Council, but to have also committed offences against the people, will it not be strange behavior on your part not to show that you have the same feelings towards him? [11] Besides, had he qualified for the Council, he would have held his seat as one in a body of five hundred, for a year only; so that, if in that period he had wished to commit an offence, he would have been easily prevented by the others. But, if he is approved for this office, he will hold it all by himself, and as a member of the Council of the Areopagus he will obtain control over the most important matters for an unlimited time.5 [12] It therefore behoves you to be stricter in your scrutiny for this office than for any other one. Else, what do you suppose will be the attitude of the great body of the citizens, when they become aware that the man who ought to have been punished for his offences has been approved by you for this high post; when they find a man judging murder cases who should have been tried himself by the Council of the Areopagus; and when, moreover, they see him crowned and established in control of heiresses and orphans, whose bereavement, in some cases, he has himself brought about? [13] Do you not think they will show a resentful temper, and will hold you responsible for it all, when they put themselves back in those former times, in which many of them were hauled to prison and destroyed without trial by these men, or compelled to flee their own country; and when they further reflect that this same person, who has brought about the rejection of Leodamas, has caused this man to qualify, by acting as accuser of the former and undertaking the defence of the latter? And what is the attitude of Evandros towards the city? How many troubles has he brought upon her? [14] Again, if you heed his words, what ill odor must you expect to incur! For, in the former case, they supposed it was anger that caused you to reject Leodamas; but if you approve this man, they will be convinced that you have given an unjust sentence on the other. These men are on their trial before you; but you are on yours before the whole city, which is watching even now to see what view you will take of her. [15] Let none of you imagine that I am accusing Evandros to oblige Leodamas, because he is a friend of mine: no, it is only from my solicitude for you and for the city. This you may easily apprehend from the actual circumstances. For it is to Leodamas's interest that this man should be approved, since that would most surely discredit you, and give you the repute of placing oligarchs instead of democrats in the magistracy; but it is to your interest to reject this man, for you will get the credit of having acted justly also in rejecting the other. But if you do not reject this man, you will appear to have been unjust in the other case also. [16]

And yet, I am told, he will assert that this scrutiny affects, not merely him, but all those who remained in the city, and he will remind you of your oaths and covenants6 in the hope that he will thus contrive to enlist the men who remained in the city to aid him in this scrutiny. But I desire, on behalf of the people, to give him this brief reply: the people do not take the same view of all those who remained in the city, but regard those who commit offences like his with the feelings that I say they ought,7 while towards the rest they feel the opposite. [17] The proof of this is that the latter have received no less honor from the city than those who marched on Phyle and got possession of the Peiraeus. And with good reason: for the character of these last is known to them only as shown under democracy, and they have not yet made trial of what it would be under oligarchy; whereas they have had sufficient test of those others under each kind of government to give grounds for confidence.8 [18] They consider that the arrests and executions were due to the defendant and his like, whereas the escapes were owing to the other citizens: in fact, if all had been of the same mind as they, neither exile nor restoration nor any other of the events that have occurred would have befallen the city. [19] As to the further point which some find unaccountable,—how it was that their large numbers were worsted by the little band of the Peiraeus,—this can only be attributed to the prudent policy of those citizens; for they chose to concert a government with the restored exiles rather than an enslavement to the Lacedaemonians with the Thirty. [20] It is therefore they, not these persons, whom the people have distinguished with the highest honors, appointing them to cavalry commands, generalships and embassies in their service; and they have never repented of it. Those who had committed numerous offences caused them to decree the institution of scrutinies; those who had done nothing of the sort, to make their covenants. So much for my reply to you on behalf of the people. [21]

It is your business, gentlemen of the Council, to inquire whether you will reach a better decision in the matter of this scrutiny by listening to me or to Thrasybulus, who will defend this man. Well, concerning myself or my father or my ancestors he will have nothing to allege that points to hatred of the people. For he cannot say that I took part in the oligarchy, as I underwent the scrutiny for manhood9 at a later date than that; or that my father did either, since he died while holding command in Sicily, long before those seditions; [22] or that my ancestors were subject to the despots, for they continually persisted in raising rebellion against them. Nor yet will he assert that we acquired our fortune in the war, and have spent nothing on the city: quite the contrary, our estate during the peace amounted to eighty talents, and the whole of it was spent in the war on the deliverance of the city. [23] But on my part I shall be able to tell of this person10 three things so grave in their enormity that each deed is worthy of death. First, for payment received, he raised a revolution in Boeotia, and deprived us of that alliance; second, he surrendered our ships11 and confronted the city with the problem of its safety; [24] and last, from the prisoners of war, whose loss he himself had caused, he extracted a bribe of thirty minae, by declaring that he would not obtain their release unless they supplied him with this sum from their own pockets. So now you are acquainted with the life of each of us: decide accordingly which of us two you ought to believe regarding the scrutiny of Evandros, and by so doing you will avoid mistake.

1 In dramatic or athletic contests.

2 In the temples at Athens, Delphi, etc.

3 Apparently the law forbade any court to sit on that day.

4 Probably referring to murders committed in compliance with the violent measures of the Thirty.

5 The gravest criminal charges, and cases of sacrilege, were brought before the ancient court of the Areopagus.

6 i.e., not to cherish enmity against the party of the town.

7 i.e., with severity.

8 The more liberal-minded of the party of the town have been tried by the test of oligarchy as well as that of democracy, and deserve the full benefit of the reconciliation.

9 In his eighteenth year.

10 Thrasybulus.

11 In a fight at the Hellespont, 387 B.C. Cf. Xen. Hell. 5.1.27.

The accusations that have been made, men of Athens, against Epicrates and his fellow-envoys are sufficient: but you should bear in mind the assertion that you have often heard from the mouths of these men, whenever they sought to ruin somebody unjustly,—that, unless you make the convictions that they demand, your stipends will not be forthcoming.1 [2] They are none the less deficient today; so that through their act the suffering and the disgrace fall to you, and the profit to them.2 For they have found by experiment that, whenever they and their speeches seem likely to induce you to give your votes against justice, they easily obtain money from the guilty parties. [3] Yet what hope of safety can be ours, when the preservation or the ruin of the city depends on money, and when these men, —the guardians that you have set up, your chastisers of the guilty,—both rob you and do anything for bribes? And this is not the first time that they have been caught in criminal acts: they have been tried before now for taking bribes. [4] And here I have to reproach you for having convicted Onomasas3 and acquitted this man of the same crime, although it was the same person who accused them all, and they were opposed by the same witnesses; who had not been told by others, but were the very persons who arranged with these men about the money and the gifts. [5] Yet you are all aware that it is not by chastising men who are not able to speak that you will make an example to deter men from wronging you, but that by doing justice upon those who are able you will cause everyone to cease attempting to commit offences against you. [6] But at present they find it quite safe to rob you. For if they are not detected, they will be able to enjoy their booty without fear; while if they are caught, they either buy off the prosecution with part of their ill-gotten gains, or save themselves, on being brought to trial, by their own ability. So this is the moment, gentlemen of the jury, for you to make an example that will ensure the honesty of the rest, by doing justice upon these men. [7] All who are in the administration of the State have come here, not to listen to us, but to know what view you will take of the guilty. Hence if you acquit these men, they will think that there is nothing to fear from deceiving you and making a profit at your expense; but if you condemn them, and sentence them to death, by that same vote you will make the rest more orderly than they are now, and you will have done justice upon these men. [8] And I conceive, men of Athens, that even if you decided, without putting them on trial or consenting to hear their defence, to condemn them to the extreme penalty, they would not have perished unjudged, but would have paid the suitable penalty. For those men are not unjudged on whom you have given your verdict with a knowledge of the acts that have been committed, but only those who, traduced by their enemies in matters of which you have no knowledge, fail to get a hearing. These men are accused by the facts: we are merely the witnesses against them. [9] I have no fear that, if you hear them, you will acquit them; but I consider that they would not have paid the penalty they deserved if you condemned them only after having heard them. Could it be so, gentlemen, when they have not even the same interests as you? During the war these men have advanced themselves from poverty to wealth at your expense, while you are in poverty because of them. [10] Yet surely it is the duty of true leaders of the people not to take your property in the stress of your misfortunes, but to give their own property to you. And here we have come to such a pass that those who formerly, in the period of peace, were unable even to support themselves, are now contributing to your special levies, producing dramas and dwelling in great houses. [11] Yet there was a time when you begrudged others the doing of these things with the means inherited from their fathers; whereas now the city is in such a plight that you are no longer incensed by the thefts of these people, but are thankful for what you can obtain for yourselves, as though it were you who were in their pay, and not they who were robbing you! [12] Most preposterous of all, while in private suits it is the wronged who weep and arouse pity, in public suits it is the wrongdoers who arouse pity, and you, the wronged, who pity them. So now, perhaps, fellow-townsmen and friends, in their old habitual way, will cry out and implore you to spare them. But, in my view, the proper course is this: [13] if they believe these men to be free from guilt, let them prove that the accusations are false, and so persuade you to acquit them; but if they are going to beg them off in the belief that they are guilty, it is plain that they have more consideration for the wrongdoers than for you, the wronged; so that they do not deserve to get indulgence, but punishment, as soon as you can inflict it. [14] Besides, you may take it that these same persons have plied the prosecution with urgent requests, supposing that they would obtain this indulgence more quickly from our small number than from you, and also that other hands would be readier than your own to make a present of your property. [15] Now, we have refused to be traitors, and we expect no less of you: reflect that you would be highly incensed with us, and would punish us at any opportunity, as criminals deserve, had we come to terms with these men, either by taking payment or by any other means. Yet if you are incensed with those who do not go through with their suit as justice requires, surely you are bound to punish the actual offenders. [16] So now, gentlemen of the jury, after condemning Epicrates you must sentence him to the extreme penalty. Do not take the course, to which you have hitherto been accustomed, of convicting the guilty by an adverse verdict, and then letting them go unscathed when you come to the sentence: this procures you the enmity, not the punishment, of the guilty, as though it were the disgrace, and not the penalty, that gave them concern. For you are well aware that by your verdict you merely disgrace the guilty, but that by your sentence you exact vengeance for the crimes that they commit.

1 The allusion is to the three obols paid daily to each juryman. The expenses of the judicature were usually covered by the income from fines and confiscations, and in a time of financial stress this evil alarm might plausibly be raised. Cf. Aristoph. Kn. 1359.

2 The text here is very uncertain.

3 Nothing is known of this person.

The counts of the accusation are so many and so grave, men of Athens, that not even were he put to death a number of times for each one of his acts would Ergocles be able, in my opinion, to give your people due satisfaction. For it is evident that he has betrayed cities, wronged your representatives and your citizens, and advanced himself from poverty to wealth at your expense. [2] Now tell me, how can you forgive these persons, when you see the fleet that they commanded breaking up for want of money and dwindling in numbers,1 while these men, who were poor and needy on sailing out, have so quickly acquired the largest fortune in the city? It is your duty, therefore, men of Athens, to show indignation at such conduct. [3] And indeed it would be strange if now, when you are yourselves thus oppressed by the special levies, you should forgive men who embezzle and take bribes; and yet heretofore, when your estates were ample and the public revenue was ample too, those who coveted your property you punished with death. [4] I think you will all agree that, if Thrasybulus had proposed to you that he should sail out with warships which he was to deliver up worn out instead of new; that the dangers were to be yours, while the benefits would accrue to his own friends; and that he would reduce you to worse poverty owing to the levies, but would make Ergocles and his other adulators the wealthiest men in the city,—not one of you would have given the man permission to sail out with your ships. [5] And to make matters worse, as soon as you had decreed that an inventory be made of the sums obtained from the cities, and that his fellow-commanders should sail home to undergo their audit, Ergocles said that there you were at your slander-mongering and hankering after the ancient laws,2 and he advised Thrasybulus to occupy Byzantium, keep the ships, and marry Seuthes'3 daughter: [6] “by this means,” he told him, “you will cut short their slander-mongering; for you will make them sit still, contriving no harm against you and your friends, but full of fear for themselves.” So far did they go, men of Athens,—as soon as they had gorged themselves and were regaled with your possessions,—in regarding themselves as alien to the city. [7] No sooner are they rich than they hate you; they plan thenceforth, not to be your subjects, but to be your rulers, and, apprehensive for the fruits of their depredations, they are ready to occupy strongholds, establish an oligarchy, and seek every means of exposing you, day after day, to the most awful dangers. The result will be, they expect, that you will cease paying attention to their particular offences and, in terror for yourselves and for the city, will leave them in peace. [8] Now, as for Thrasybulus, men of Athens,—for there is no need to say more about him,—he did well to end his life as he did4: for it was not right for him either to live in the prosecution of such schemes or to suffer death at your hands with his repute of having served you well in the past, but rather to settle his account with the city in that sort of way. [9] But the others, I see, in consequence of the Assembly that was held two days ago,5 are no longer sparing their money, but are purchasing their lives from the speakers, from their enemies, and from the Committee,6 and are corrupting numerous Athenians with hard cash. It is your duty to clear yourselves of that suspicion by punishing this man today, and to make it plain to all people that there is no sum large enough to overcome you in your purpose of exacting requital from the guilty. [10] For you must reflect, men of Athens, that it is not Ergocles alone, but the whole city as well, that is on trial. Today you are to demonstrate to your officers whether they ought to be upright or, after abstracting as much of your property as they can, to compass their salvation by the same means as these men are now applying. [11] Well, of one thing you may be assured, men of Athens: whoever in this serious stringency of your affairs either betrays your cities or decides to steal your money or receive bribes, is the very man to surrender your walls and your ships to the enemy, and to establish oligarchy in place of democracy. It is not right, then, that you should be mastered by their devices: you should rather make an example for all men to see, and regard neither profit nor pity nor aught else as more important than the punishment of these men. [12]

I do not suppose, men of Athens, that in regard to Halicarnassus and his command and his own proceedings Ergocles will attempt any justification, but that he will state that he returned from Phyle,7 that he is a democrat, and that he bore his share in your dangers. But I, men of Athens, do not view the position in that sort of way. [13] Those who, longing for liberty and justice, desiring the maintenance of the laws and hating wrongdoers, shared in your dangers, I do not regard as bad citizens, nor would it be unfair, I say, that the exile of that party should be reckoned into their account. But those who, after their return, do injury to your people under a democracy, and enlarge their private properties at your expense, deserve to feel your wrath far more than the Thirty. [14] The latter were elected for the very purpose of doing you harm by any available means, whereas you have entrusted yourselves to these men in order that they may promote the greatness and freedom of the city. Nothing of the sort have you secured: so far as they could, they have involved you in the most awful dangers; and hence you would be far more justified in pitying yourselves, your children and your wives than these men, when you think of the ravages that you suffer at such hands as theirs. [15] For, just when we are convinced that we have salvation in our grasp, we meet with more terrible treatment from our officers than from the enemy. Of course you all understand that you have no hope of salvation if you undergo a reverse.8 You ought therefore to exhort yourselves to impose on these men today the extreme penalty, and to make it evident to the rest of Greece that you punish the guilty and mean to reform your officers. [16] This, at least, is my own exhortation to you; and you should know that, if you take my advice, you will decide wisely for yourselves, but if not, you will find the rest of the citizens more unruly. Besides, men of Athens, if you acquit them, they will not be thankful to you, but to their expenditure and to the funds that they have embezzled; so that, while you endow yourselves with their enmity, they will thank those means for their salvation. [17] Furthermore, men of Athens, both the people of Halicarnassus and the other victims of these men, if you inflict the extreme penalty upon them, will feel that, although they have been ruined by these persons, they have been vindicated by you; but if you save their lives, they will suppose that you have put yourselves in accord with their betrayers. So, bearing all these points in mind, you ought by the same act to show your gratitude to your friends and to do justice upon the guilty.

1 Diodorus Siculus （ Dio. Sic. 14.94） mentions a storm in which Thrasybulus lost 23 warships.

2 Which regulated the collection of tribute from the states subject to Athens down to the time of the Peloponnesian War.

3 A prince of Thrace friendly to Thrasybulus.

4 He was killed in a riot at Aspendus, 389-388 B.C.

5 When Ergocles had been voted guilty.

6 See Lys. 22.2 and note.

7 With the democrats in 403 B.C.

8 The reference is to the depletion of the Treasury.

In this action, gentlemen of the jury, we have had more default of accusers than I expected. There were many persons who made threats and declared that they would accuse Philocrates; but not one of them is forthcoming at the moment. This fact, in my opinion, is a signal proof that the terms of the writ1 are correct. For if the defendant were not in possession of a great part of Ergocles money, he would not be so successful in getting rid of his accusers. [2] But I expect, gentlemen, that you are all aware that the reason why you voted for the death-sentence upon Ergocles was because his misappropriation of public funds had procured him a fortune of more than thirty talents. Of that money not a sign is to be found in the city. Yet whither should we turn, where are we to look, for the money? For if it cannot be found in the hands of his relatives and the persons with whom he was most intimately associated, we shall have a hard task to discover it in the hands of his enemies. [3] And whom did Ergocles value more than Philocrates, or with what man alive had he more intimate relations? Did he not pick him from amongst your infantry for service abroad, and make him his purser, and finally appoint him to equip a warship? [4] How very strange that, whereas men of property lament that they have to equip warships, this man, who was previously possessed of nothing, at that time volunteered this public service! So it was not to penalize him that he appointed him to equip a warship, but to let him profit by it and also keep guard over his own funds, since he had nobody whom he could trust above this man. [5] I conceive, gentlemen of the jury, that Philocrates can defend himself in two ways, and in two only: he must prove either that Ergocles' money is held by others; or that he was put to death unjustly, having embezzled none of your property, and having taken no bribes. If he can do neither of these things, I say that his condemnation is decided, and also that, if you are indignant with those who take money from other people, you ought not to pardon those who are in possession of your own. [6]

Who in Athens does not know that three talents were deposited for the speakers in aid of Ergocles, if they should succeed in saving him? When they saw your wrath intent on vengeance, they kept quiet and did not dare to expose themselves. Philocrates, when at first he failed to recover this money from them, said that he would inform against them in public. [7] But when he had both got the money back and obtained control of the rest of the man's property, he had the audacity to procure witnesses who would support him by testifying that he was the bitterest enemy on earth to Ergocles. Yet can you imagine, gentlemen, that he would have been so utterly insane as to volunteer to equip a warship while Thrasybulus was in command and Ergocles was on bad terms with him? How could he have come more swiftly by his ruin, or have exposed himself more to maltreatment? [8]

Well now, enough has been said on those matters: but I call upon you to vindicate yourselves and to be much more prompt to punish the guilty than to feel pity for those who are keeping the property of the State. He will relinquish nothing that belongs to him, but only restore what is your own; and a much larger amount will be left over for him. [9] And indeed it would be strange, gentlemen of the jury, that you should be incensed with those who are unable to pay their contributions to the special levies from their own means, and should confiscate their estates on the ground of default, but yet should decline to punish those who are keeping your own property, when you are not only to be deprived of your money but also to be more sorely troubled by their enmity. [10] For as long as they are conscious of keeping your property they will never desist from their malignity towards you, since they will believe that only the calamities of the city can relieve them of their embarrassments. [11]

I consider, gentlemen of the jury, that the issue involved in his case ought to be not merely one of money, but that his life also should be at stake. For it would be a strange thing, when those who connive with the thieves in a private larceny are to be subject to the same penalty,2 that this man, conniving with Ergocles in a theft of the city's property and receiving bribes at your expense, should not incur the same punishment, but should win the fortune left by his accomplice as a prize for his own wickedness. These men deserve your wrath, gentlemen of the jury. [12] For when Ergocles was on his trial, they went about among the people saying that they had bribed five hundred of the Peiraeus party and sixteen hundred of the party of the city. They professed to rely on their money rather than to fear the results of their own misdeeds. [13] Well, in that case you plainly showed them,—and if you are well advised you will make it clear likewise to all men today,—that there is no sum of money large enough to deflect you from the punishment of those whom you may take in the act of wrongdoing, and that by no means will you permit them to pillage and steal your property with impunity. [14] This, then, is the counsel that I give you. You all understand that Ergocles sailed out to make money, not to gain credit with you, and that this man and no other is keeping his money. So if you are prudent you will recover what is your own.

1 For the recovery of money unlawfully withheld from the State; cf. Lys. 9, For the Soldier.

2 Cf. Plat. Laws 12.955b.

There have been cases, gentlemen of the jury, of persons who, when brought to trial, have appeared to be guilty, but who, on showing forth their ancestors' virtues and their own benefactions, have obtained your pardon. Since, therefore, you are satisfied with the plea of the defendants, if they are shown to have done some service to the State, it is fair that you should also listen to the accusers, if they show forth a long course of villainy in the accused. [2] Now, to tell how Nicomachus's father was a public slave,1 and what were the man's own occupations in his youth, and at what age he was admitted to his clan,2 would be a lengthy affair: but when he became a commissioner for transcribing the laws, it is common knowledge what outrages he committed on the city. For whereas he had been instructed to transcribe the laws of Solon within four months, he usurped the place of Solon as lawgiver, extended his office over six years instead of four months, and day by day, in return for payment, he inserted some laws and erased others. [3] We were brought to such a pass that we had our laws dispensed to us from his hands, and parties to suits produced opposite laws in the courts, both sides asserting that they had obtained them from Nicomachus. When the magistrates imposed summary fines on him, and brought him up in court, he refused to hand over the laws: nay, the city was already involved in the gravest disasters, and still he had not been relieved of his office, nor had submitted to an audit of his proceedings. [4] And observe, gentlemen, how, having suffered no punishment for that conduct, he has now turned his new office to similar account: first, he has been transcribing for four years, when he could have discharged his duty in thirty days; and second, although he had definite orders as to the texts that he had to transcribe, he assumed supreme authority over the whole code, and after handling more business than anyone had ever done before he is the only person who has held office without submitting to an audit. [5] Everyone else, with each new presidency,3 renders an account of his office; but you, Nicomachus, have not deigned to show your accounts for as much as four years; you, alone of the citizens, claim licence to hold office for a lengthy period, without either submitting to an audit, or obeying the decrees, or respecting the laws: you insert this, and erase that, and carry insolence to such a pitch that you regard the State's property as yours, who are yourself its slave! [6] It is your duty, therefore, gentlemen of the jury, to remember what was the ancestry of Nicomachus, and also how ungrateful has been his treatment of you with his illegal acts, and to punish him: so, since you have not made him pay the penalty for each one of them, exact requital now, at any rate, for them all. [7]

It may be, gentlemen, that, failing to find a plea for his own defence, he will try to slander me: but I would ask you only to credit this man's account of my life when, on having to defend myself, I fail to convict him of falsehood. If by chance he should venture on a repetition of what he stated before the Council,—that I was one of the Four Hundred,—reflect that on the basis of such statements as this the Four Hundred will number more than a thousand; for on those who were still but children at that time, or were not residing here, this aspersion is commonly cast by persons of slanderous intent. [8] But for my part, so far was I from being one of the Four Hundred that I was not even included in the list of the Five Thousand. And I consider it monstrous that, although in a suit concerning private contracts, had I convicted him as plainly as here of wrongdoing, he would not even himself have expected to obtain an acquittal by resorting to such a defence, he now, on his trial for matters of public interest, is to count on escaping punishment at your hands by accusing me. [9]

Moreover, I find it astonishing that Nicomachus should think fit to stir up resentment against others in this criminal way, when I mean to prove that he hatched mischief against the people. And now listen to me; for it is justifiable, gentlemen of the jury, to admit such accusations in the case of men who, having combined at that time to subvert the democracy, would represent themselves today as democrats. [10] After the loss of our ships,4 when the revolution was being arranged, Cleophon5 reviled the Council, declaring that it was in conspiracy6 and was not seeking the best interests of the State. Satyrus of Cephisia,7 one of the Council, persuaded them to arrest him and hand him over to the court. [11] Those who wished to do away with him, fearing that they would fail of a death-sentence in the law-court, persuaded Nicomachus to exhibit a law requiring the Council8 to partake in the trial as assessors. And this man, the worst of villains, was so open in his support of the plot that on the day of the trial he exhibited the law. [12] Now against Cleophon, gentlemen of the jury, one might have other accusations to urge; but one thing is admitted on all sides,—that the subverters of the democracy desired to get him out of their way more than any other of the citizens, and that Satyrus and Chremon, who were members of the Thirty, accused Cleophon, not from any anger at your fate, but in order that, having put that man to death, they might injure you themselves. [13] And they achieved their end because of the law which Nicomachus exhibited. Now you may reasonably reflect, gentlemen,—even those of you who thought Cleophon to be a bad citizen,—that, although among those who perished under the oligarchy there were perhaps one or two villains, yet it was on account of even such sufferers that you were incensed against the Thirty, as having put them to death, not for their crimes, but for motives of party. [14] If, therefore, he tries to rebut this charge, you have merely to remember that he exhibited the law at that very moment when the revolution was being effected, with the aim of gratifying those who had subverted the democracy; and that he included as assessors at the trial that Council in which Satyrus and Chremon had the chief influence, and which put to death Strombichides,9 Calliades and a number of loyal and upright citizens. [15]

I should have made no reference to these events had I not learnt that he was going to attempt, by posing as a democrat, to save himself in despite of justice, and that he would produce his exile as a proof of his attachment to the people. But I on my part could point out others among those who combined to subvert the democracy who were either put to death or exiled and debarred from the citizenship, [16] so that he cannot expect to get any credit on that account. For while this man did contribute his share to your exile, he owed his return to you, the people. And besides, it would be monstrous if you should feel grateful to him for what he underwent against his will, but should exact no requital for his voluntary offences. [17]

I am informed that he alleges that I am guilty of impiety in seeking to abolish the sacrifices. But if it were I who were law-making over this transcription of our code, I should take it to be open to Nicomachus to make such a statement about me. But in fact I am merely claiming that he should obey the code established and patent to all10; and I am surprised at his not observing that, when he taxes me with impiety for saying that we ought to perform the sacrifices named in the tablets and pillars as directed in the regulations, he is accusing the city as well: for they are what you have decreed. And then, sir, if you feel these to be hard words, surely you must attribute grievous guilt to those citizens who used to sacrifice solely in accordance with the tablets. [18] But of course, gentlemen of the jury, we are not to be instructed in piety by Nicomachus, but are rather to be guided by the ways of the past. Now our ancestors, by sacrificing in accordance with the tablets, have handed down to us a city superior in greatness and prosperity to any other in Greece; so that it behoves us to perform the same sacrifices as they did, if for no other reason than that of the success which has resulted from those rites. [19] And how could a man show greater piety than mine, when I demand, first that our sacrifices be performed according to our ancestral rules, and second that they be those which tend to promote the interests of the city, and finally those which the people have decreed and which we shall be able to afford out of the public revenue? But you, Nicomachus, have done the opposite of this: by entering in your copy a greater number than had been ordained you have caused the public revenue to be expended on these, and hence to be deficient for our ancestral offerings. [20] For example, last year some sacrifices, costing three talents, were in abeyance, though they were among those inscribed on the tablets. And it cannot be said that the revenues of the State were insufficient; for if this man had not entered sacrifices to an excess amounting to six talents, there would have been enough for our ancestral offerings, and moreover the State would have had a surplus of three talents. In support of these statements I will add the evidence of witnesses.“Witnesses” [21]

Reflect, therefore, gentlemen of the jury, that when we proceed in accordance with the regulations, all the ancestral offerings are made; but when we are guided by the pillars as copied by this man, numerous rites are abolished.11 Whereupon the sacrilegious wretch runs about saying that his transcription was piety and not parsimony, and that if you do not approve of his work you had better erase it: by this means he thinks to persuade you of his innocence. Yet in two years he has managed to spend twelve talents more than was necessary, [22] and has endeavored to mulct the State in a sum of six talents each year,—and that too when he saw her in difficulties for money, the Lacedaemonians threatening us if we failed to remit them their payments, the Boeotians taking reprisals because we could not refund two talents, and the shipping sheds and the walls falling to pieces; when he knew that the Council for the time being is not led into error if it has sufficient means for the administration, but is forced in a time of difficulty to accept impeachments, to confiscate the property of our citizens, and to be swayed by the most unprincipled of its orators! [23] You ought therefore, gentlemen, to be incensed, not with those who happen to be on the Council, but with those who reduce the State to these awful straits. And the men who seek to rob the public purse are watching closely to see how Nicomachus will fare in these proceedings. If you do not punish him, you will grant them absolute licence; but if you condemn him and award him your heaviest sentence, by the same vote you will reform the rest, and will have done justice upon this man. [24] Understand, gentlemen of the jury, that it will be an example to the rest, and will deter them from committing offences against you, if instead of punishing unskillful speakers you exact requital from the skillful. And from whom amongst our citizens could it be more suitably exacted than from Nicomachus? Who has rendered less service or done more wrong to the city? [25] Appointed to transcribe our code of duties, secular and sacred, he has offended against both. Remember that ere now you have put many of the citizens to death for peculation: yet the injury that they had done you was only for the passing moment, whereas these men,12 by taking bribes for the version that they made of our laws, damage the city for all time. [26]

And what reason is there for acquitting this man? Because he has taken a brave man's part in many battles by land and sea against the enemy? But while you were facing danger on naval expeditions, this man stayed at home and corrupted the laws of Solon. Or because he has disbursed money and contributed to numerous levies? But, so far from bestowing anything of his own upon you, he has embezzled a vast amount of your property. Or because of his ancestors? [27] For this has been a reason in the past for some men obtaining your pardon. But if this man deserves to be put to death on his own account, he ought to be sold on account of his ancestors.13 Or is it that, if you spare him now, he will repay your favours hereafter? He does not even remember the benefits in which you allowed him to share before. [28] And yet from a slave he has become a citizen, and has exchanged beggary for wealth and the position of under-clerk for that of lawgiver! And here one might even make it an accusation against you that, whereas your ancestors chose as lawgivers Solon, Themistocles and Pericles, in the belief that the laws would accord with the character of their makers, you have chosen Teisamenus,14 son of Mechanion, and Nicomachus, and other persons who were under-clerks; and although you feel that the magistracy is depraved by people of this sort, it is just these men who have your confidence. [29] Most extraordinary of all, though it is not permissible for the same man to act twice as under-clerk to the same magistracy, you authorize the same persons to have control over the most important affairs for a long period. And, to crown all, you have chosen Nicomachus for the transcription of our ancestral rites, when on the father's side he has no connection with the State; [30] and the man who ought to have been tried by the people is found to have joined in destroying the people. Today, therefore, you must repent of the things that you have done, and refuse to endure continual maltreatment from these men. You reprobate the guilty in private: do not acquit them when you are free to punish them. [31]

On these matters I have now said enough: but in regard to those who propose to beg him off I would make to you a few remarks. Some of his friends and some members of the government have arranged to intercede for him: several of them, in my opinion, ought much rather to defend their own acts than engage to save the guilty. [32] But it seems to me an extraordinary thing, gentlemen of the jury, that, when he was but one man, in no way wronged by the State, they made no attempt at requiring him to desist from his offences against you, but should seek to persuade you, who are so many and have been wronged by him, that you should not do justice upon him. [33] You ought therefore to show on your part the same zeal, with which you see them working to save their friends, in punishing your enemies, fully assured that they will be the first to think the better of you for exacting the penalty from the guilty. Reflect that not a single one of those who will plead for him has done as much service as this man has done wrong to the State, and that therefore it is much more your duty to punish than it is theirs to succor. [34] You must also know for certain that these same men have plied the prosecution with many appeals, but have utterly failed to persuade us: it is to make a base attempt on your vote that they have entered the court, and they are hoping to deceive you, and so obtain licence to act as they please in the future. [35] Now we, having refused to be swayed by the inducements of their appeal, exhort you to show the same spirit and, instead of merely detesting wickedness before it is brought to trial, to make this trial your means of punishing those who nullify your legislation. For thus everything connected with public affairs will be administered in accordance with the laws.

1 Owned by the State and employed in the police and other public services.

2 A subdivision of the tribe, to which admission was usually obtained in infancy.

3 Every 35 days the presidency of the Council and the Assembly was taken over by a committee of 50 representatives of the 10 tribes. Magistrates on going out of office submitted their accounts to a board of 10 auditors （λογισταί）; appointed by the Council, and some minor officers changed with each “presidency.”.

4 At Aegospotami, 405 B.C.

5 See Lys. 13.7, note.

6 i.e., with the oligarchs.

7 An Attic township about 9 miles north-east of Athens.

8 Mainly consisting of oligarchs, and so likely to condemn Cleophon.

9 See Lys. 13.13, note.

10 The speaker seems to mean: “If I, like Nicomachus, were using the opportunities of a transcriber for the purpose of unauthorized ‘law-making,’ he might reasonably accuse me of some such innovation as ‘abolishing sacrifices’; whereas I merely demand that he should adhere to the established code, about which there is no doubt or secrecy.”

11 i.e., some of the “ancestral rites” are dropped because the necessary funds have to be spent on the rites that he has foisted into the code.

12 The speaker enlarges the crime of the accused by suggesting that there are others practicing or attempting the same thing.

13 Being of servile birth, he has no right to the citizenship, and should be sold in the slave-market.

14 Who proposed the decree that the laws should be revised.

I did not suppose, gentlemen of the Council, that Philon would ever carry audacity to the point of consenting to appear before you in order to pass a scrutiny. But since he is audacious, not in one instance only, but in many, and I have taken oath before entering the Council-chamber [2] that my counsel would be for the best advantage of the State, and as the terms of that oath require us to expose any person appointed by lot whom we know to be unsuitable for service on the Council, I shall deliver the accusation against this man Philon: I am not, however, pursuing any private feud, nor am I prompted by my ability or practice in speaking before you, but I merely rely on the multitude of his offences, and feel bound to abide by the oaths that I have sworn. [3] Now you will recognize that the contest will be an unequal one: my resources will not be so ample for showing up his character as his were for contriving his villainies. Nevertheless, if I should not altogether discharge my part in speaking to the accusation, it would not be right that he should benefit by that, but rather that he should be rejected on the score of any points that I can demonstrate to your satisfaction. [4] For my speech will be found defective only on account of my imperfect acquaintance with the whole of his actions, but adequate on account of the vileness of all his ways. And I also call upon those among you who may have more ability in speaking than I to amplify my exposure of his offences, and to make use of any points that I omit for accusing Philon, in your turn, of offences known to you. For it is not from my sole statement that you ought to form your views of his character. [5]

What I say is that only those have the right to sit in Council on our concerns who, besides holding the citizenship, have their hearts set upon it. For to them it makes a great difference whether this city is prosperous or unsuccessful, because they consider themselves obliged to bear their share in her calamities as they also share in her advantages. [6] But those who, though citizens by birth, adopt the view that any country in which they have their business is their fatherland, are evidently men who would even abandon the public interest of their city to seek their private gain, because they regard their fortune, not the city, as their fatherland. [7] Now I will demonstrate that Philon here has set his private safety above the public danger of the city, and has held it preferable to pass his life without danger to himself rather than save the city by sharing her dangers with the rest of the citizens. [8]

For this man, gentlemen of the Council, in the midst of the city's disaster （which I only touch upon so far as I am forced to do so）, was banned from the town by the Thirty along with the main body of the citizens, and for a while he lived in the country: but when the party of Phyle returned to the Peiraeus, and the people, not only from the country, but from over the border, assembled together, partly in the town and partly in the Peiraeus, and when each to the extent of his powers came to the rescue of his fatherland, Philon's conduct was the opposite of that shown by the rest of the citizens. [9] For he packed up all his belongings and left the city to live beyond the border, at Oropus, where he paid the aliensÕ tax and resided under the protection of a patron, since he preferred the life of an alien among those people to citizenship with us. And so he would not even do as some citizens did, who turned about when they saw the party of Phyle succeeding in their efforts; he did not even think fit to take any share in these successes, but chose to come when the business was achieved rather than join in the return after achieving something for the advantage of the common wealth. For he did not come to the Peiraeus, nor is there any instance of his having placed himself at your disposal. [10] But I ask you, if on seeing us successful he did not shrink from betraying us, what must he have done to us, had we failed of our object? Now those who were prevented by private calamities from sharing the dangers that then beset the city deserve some indulgence: for misfortune befalls no man of his own will. [11] But those who acted thus by design merit no indulgence, since their conduct was due not to mishap, but to policy. It is a custom accepted as just among all mankind that in face of the same crimes we should be most incensed with those men who are most able to avoid criminal action, but should be indulgent to the poor or disabled because we regard their offences as involuntary. [12] This man, therefore, deserves no indulgence; for neither was he disabled and thus unfit for hardship, as you see for yourselves, nor did he lack means for the public services, as I shall establish. If, then, he was as backward as he was able to help, how should he not hated with good reason by you all? [13] Nor indeed will you incur the enmity of any of the citizens if you reject him; for it is by no means one party, but both, that he has manifestly betrayed, so that he can claim friendship neither with those who were in the town （for he did not think fit to stand by them in their peril）, nor with those who occupied the Peiraeus, since he did not consent to return even with them; and that, too, when he was, as he asserts, a townsman!1 [14] But if there yet remains a party of the citizens that had a share in his proceedings, if ever—may Heaven forfend it!—they get the city into their hands, let him claim his seat on the Council with them.

Well, that he lived at Oropus under the protection of a patron, that he possessed ample means, and yet stood to arms neither in the Peiraeus nor in the town, are my first contentions: to make sure of their truth, hear the witnesses.“Witnesses” [15]

So now it remains for him to state that owing to some infirmity that befell him he was incapacitated from assisting the party in the Peiraeus, but that he offered to spend his own resources either in contributing to the people's funds or in arming some of his fellow-townsmen as infantry, after the example of many other citizens who were unable to give their loyal services in person. [16] Now, to preclude him from deceiving you with lies, I will give you clear information at once on these points also, since I shall not be at liberty afterwards to come forward in this place and expose him. Please call Diotimus of Acharnae2 and those who were appointed with him to arm the townsmen as infantry from the funds then contributed.“Testimony of Diotimus and those Appointed With Him” [17]

So this man had no intention of aiding the city in such a moment, in such a position of her affairs; his purpose was to make a profit out of your disasters. For he set out from Oropus, going sometimes alone and sometimes at the head of others who took your misfortunes as so much good fortune, and so traversed the countryside: [18] where he met with the most elderly citizens who had stayed behind in their townships with scanty supplies that barely sufficed them,—men who were attached to the democracy, but unable owing to their age to give it their support,—he stripped them of their resources, thinking it more important to make his own petty gains than to spare them injury. It is not possible for all these to prosecute him today, from the very same cause that disabled them from supporting the city: [19] yet this man ought not to benefit twice from their disability, and be helped thereby to pass your present scrutiny as he was before to rob them of what they had. Nay, if but a single one of those whom he has wronged appears in court, make much of it, and utterly detest this man, who could bring himself to strip of their resources those on whom other men, out of pity for their straits, freely bestowed something from their own. Pray call the witnesses.“Witnesses” [20]

Well now, I do not see how your judgement of him should differ from that of his own people; for the facts are of such a nature that, even if he had committed no other offence, they would alone justify his rejection. The strange things of which his mother accused him while she was alive I will pass over; but on the evidence of the measures that she took at the close of her life you can easily judge how he treated her. [21] She demurred to committing herself to his care after her death, but as she had confidence in Antiphanes, who was no connection of hers, she gave him three minae of silver for her burial, ignoring this man, who was her own son. Obviously, of course, she was convinced that he would not perform the last duties even on the ground of his relationship. [22] Now I ask you, if a mother,—who is naturally most willing to tolerate even an injury at the hands of her own children, and who counts little benefits as great gains because she assesses their behavior by affection rather than logic,—believed that this man would seek his profit from her even in death, what should be your feeling about him? [23] For when a man commits such offences in regard to his own relations, what would he do in regard to strangers? To prove that these also are true facts, hear the statement of the actual person who received the money and buried her.“Testimony” [24]

What inducement, then, could you have for approving this man? Because he has committed no offence ? But he is guilty of the gravest crimes against his country. Or do you think he will reform? Then, I say, let him reform first in his bearing towards the city, and claim a seat on the Council later, when he has done her a service as signal as the wrong that he did her before. The saner course is to recompense everyone for his services after they have been performed; for I consider it monstrous that for the offences which he has already committed he is never to pay the penalty, but for the benefits which he intends to confer he is to be already possessed of honor. [25] Or is it to make the citizens better when they see all men honored alike,—is this why he is to be approved? But the danger is that good men, when they observe that they and the bad are honored alike, will desist from their good behavior, expecting that the same persons who honor the wicked may well be forgetful of the virtuous. [26] And this further point is worthy of your attention,—that whereas anyone who had betrayed a fort or a ship or an army which happened to have in it some part of our people, would be visited with the extreme penalty, this man, who has betrayed the whole city, is planning not merely to escape requital but even to obtain honor! But surely anyone who has betrayed liberty in the flagrant manner of this man deserves to be faced with a judgement awarding him, not a seat on the Council, but slavery and the heaviest punishment. [27]

He argues, so I am told, that, if it was a crime to absent himself at that crisis, we should have had a law expressly dealing with it, as in the case of all other crimes. He does not expect you to perceive that the gravity of the crime was the reason why no law was proposed to deal with it. For what orator would ever have conceived, or lawgiver have anticipated, that any of the citizens would be guilty of so grave an offence? [28] So, I suppose, if one should desert one's post when the city itself was not in danger, but was rather endangering another people,3 a law would have been made condemning that as a grievous crime; but if one deserted the city itself when the city itself was in danger, we should have had no law against this! Certainly we should, if there had been a thought that any of the citizens would ever commit such a crime. [29] Not a man but would have reason to rebuke you, gentlemen, if, after honoring in a manner worthy of the city our resident aliens for having supported the democracy beyond the requirements of their duty, you are not going to inflict on this man, for having betrayed the city in violation of his duty, if not some heavier punishment of another kind, at least the dishonor which you hold over him today. [30] Recall to your minds what reason you can have for honoring those who have proved themselves good servants of the State and for dishonoring those who serve her ill. In either case the distinction has been made not so much for the sake of those who have come into the world, as of those who are yet to come, in order that they may strive to become worthy by studious effort, and in no single direction may attempt to be base. [31] Reflect, moreover, on this: what kind of oaths do you think he would regard, when by his act he has betrayed his ancestral gods? Or how could he give good counsel on our State affairs, when he did not even desire to liberate his country? Or what secrets would he keep, when he did not even choose to obey public orders? How can it be suitable that this man, who was not even the last to come at the call of danger, should be placed in front of those who achieved our success to receive this honor today? It would be deplorable if he, who accounted the whole body of our citizens as nothing, should not in his single person be disqualified by you. [32] I see certain persons who are preparing today to support him and to plead with you, since they were not able to seduce me; but in those days of your dangers and sorest struggles, when the constitution itself was at stake and you had to contend not merely for seats on the Council but for freedom itself, they did not plead with him then to support both you and the commonwealth, and to betray neither his country nor the Council, to which he now demands admission without any right, since our success was achieved by others. [33] He alone, gentlemen of the Council, will have no fair cause for complaint if he is not admitted: for it is not you who are debarring him from honor today; it is he who deprived himself of it, at the time when he declined to come, with a zeal such as brings him now for the drawing of the lots, to take his stand with you then as a champion of the Council. [34]

I believe that what I have said is sufficient; and yet there are many things that I have omitted. But I am confident that even without these you will make for yourselves the decision that is best for the city. To judge of those who are worthy to sit on the Council you need no other test than yourselves and the civic character which enabled you to pass your own scrutiny. For this man's conduct sets up a standard that is novel and foreign to all democracy.

1 The text here is very doubtful. The meaning seems to be that he claims to be a citizen in the fullest sense, yet has not shown any of the feelings of a citizen. He and any associates of his are utterly disloyal.

2 The principal township of Attica, 7 miles north of Athens.

3 i.e., we are to suppose, forsooth, that desertion is a crime only when the city is so far from being in danger as to be at war with another city.

If the matters in dispute were not important, gentlemen of the jury, I should never have allowed these persons to appear before you; for I regard a dispute with one's relations as most disgraceful, and I know that you reprobate not merely those who are guilty of wrong, but also anyone who is unable to tolerate the sharp practice of a kinsman. But, gentlemen, since they have been robbed of a great sum of money and, after suffering numerous outrages from those who should have been the last to act in such a way, have sought refuge in me, their brother-in-law, I find it incumbent on me to speak for them. [2] I am married to their sister, a child of Diogeiton's daughter; and after many appeals I at first prevailed on both parties to submit the case to the arbitration of their friends, as I held it most desirable that their affairs should not be known to anyone else. But since Diogeiton would not allow himself to be advised by any of his own friends regarding the property which he was plainly convicted of holding, but preferred to be prosecuted, to sue against the validity of judgements, and to encounter the utmost risks, rather than do the just thing which would relieve him of all their complaints, I entreat you, [3] if I prove that the guardianship of their grandfather has been conducted more disgracefully than any heretofore held in the city by persons who had no bond of relationship, to give them the support of justice: otherwise, believe this man entirely, and reprobate us henceforward. I will now try to inform you on the matter from the beginning. [4]

Diodotus and Diogeiton, gentlemen of the jury, were brothers born of the same father and mother, and they had divided between them the personal estate, but held the real property in partnership. When Diodotus had made a large fortune in shipping business, Diogeiton induced him to marry the one daughter that he had, and two sons and a daughter were born to him. [5] Some time later, when Diodotus was enrolled for infantry service, he summoned his wife, who was his niece, and her father, who was also his father-in-law and his brother, and grandfather and uncle of the little ones, as he felt that owing to these connections there was nobody more bound to act justly by his children: he then gave him a will and five talents of silver in deposit; [6] and he also produced an account of his loans on bottomry, amounting to seven talents and forty minae … and two thousand drachmae invested in the Chersonese.1 He charged him, in case anything should happen to himself, to dower his wife and his daughter with a talent each, and to give his wife the contents of the room; he also bequeathed to his wife twenty minae and thirty staters of Cyzicus.2 [7] Having made these arrangements and left duplicate deeds in his house, he went to serve abroad with Thrasyllus. He was killed at Ephesus3: for a time Diogeiton concealed from his daughter the death of her husband, and took possession of the deeds which he had left under seal, alleging that these documents were needed for recovering the sums lent on bottomry. [8] When at length he informed them of the death, and they had done what is customary,4 they lived for the first year in the Peiraeus, as all their provisions had been left there. But when these began to give out, he sent up the children to the city, and gave their mother in marriage with a dowry of five thousand drachmae,—a thousand less than her husband had given her. [9] Seven years later the elder of the boys was certified to be of age5; when Diogeiton summoned them, and said that their father had left them twenty minae of silver and thirty staters, adding,—“Now I have spent a great deal of my own money on your support: so long as I had the means, I did not mind; but at this moment I too am in difficulties myself. You, therefore, since you have been certified and have attained manhood, must henceforth contrive to provide for yourself.” [10] On hearing these words they went away, aghast and weeping, to their mother, and brought her along with them to me. It was pitiful to see how they suffered from the blow: the poor wretches, turned out of doors, wept aloud and besought me not to allow them to be deprived of their patrimony and reduced to beggary by the last persons who ought to have committed this outrage upon them, but to give my best aid, for their sister's sake as well as their own. [11]

Of the mourning that filled my house at that time it would take long to tell. In the end, their mother implored and entreated me to assemble her father and friends together, saying that even though she had not before been accustomed to speak in the presence of men, the severity of their misfortunes would compel her to give us a full account of their hardships. [12] I went first and expressed my indignation to Hegemon, the husband of this man's daughter; I then discussed the matter with the other relations; and I called upon this man to allow his handling of the money to be investigated. Diogeiton at first refused, but finally he was compelled by his friends. When we held our meeting, the mother asked him what heart he could have, that he thought fit to take such measures with the children, “when you are their father's brother,” she said, “and my father, and their uncle and grandfather. [13] Even if you felt no shame before any man, you ought to have feared the gods. For you received from him, when he went on the expedition, five talents in deposit. I offer to swear to the truth of this on the lives of my children, both these and those since born to me, in any place6 that you yourself may name. Yet I am not so abject, or so fond of money, as to take leave of life after perjuring myself on the lives of my own children, and to appropriate unjustly my father's estate.” [14] And she convicted him further of having recovered seven talents and four thousand drachmae of bottomry loans, and she produced the record of these; for she showed that in the course of his removal from Collytus7 to the house of Phaedrus the children had happened upon the register, which had been mislaid, and had brought it to her. [15] She also proved that he had recovered a hundred minae which had been lent at interest on land mortgages, besides two thousand drachmae and some furniture of great value; and that corn came in to them every year from the Chersonese.8“After that,” she said, “you had the audacity to state, when you had so much money in your possession, that their father bequeathed them two thousand drachmae and thirty staters,—just the amount that was bequeathed to me, and that I gave you after his decease! [16] And you thought fit to turn these, the children of your daughter, out of their own house, in worn-out clothes, without shoes or attendant or bedding or cloaks; without the furniture which their father bequeathed to them, and without the money which he had deposited with you. [17] And now you are bringing up the children you have had by my step-mother in all the comforts of affluence; and you are quite right in that: but you are wronging mine, whom you ejected from the house in dishonor, and whom you are intent on turning from persons of ample means into beggars. And over proceedings of this sort you feel neither fear of the gods nor shame before me who am cognizant of the facts, nor are you mindful of your brother, but you put money before us all.” [18] Thereupon, gentlemen of the jury, after hearing all the severe things spoken by the mother, the whole company of us there were so affected by this man's conduct and by her statements,—when we saw how the children had been treated, and recalled the dead man to mind and how unworthy was the guardian he had left in charge of his estate, and reflected how hard it is to find a person who can be trusted with one's affairs,—that nobody, gentlemen, among us there was able to utter a word: we could only weep as sadly as the sufferers, and go our ways in silence.

Now, first, will you come forward, witnesses, to support what I say.“Witnesses” [19]

Well, gentlemen of the jury, I ask that due attention be given to this reckoning, in order that you may take pity on the young people for the depth of their misfortune, and may consider that this man deserves the anger of everyone in the city. For Diogeiton is reducing all men to such a state of suspicion towards their fellows that neither living nor dying can they place any more confidence in their nearest relations than in their bitterest enemies; [20] since he has had the face to deny one part of his debt and, after finally confessing to the rest, to make out a sum of seven talents of silver and seven thousand drachmae as receipts and expenses on account of two boys and their sister during eight years. So gross is his impudence that, not knowing how he should enter the sums spent, he reckoned for the viands of the two young boys and their sister five obols a day9; for shoes, laundry and hairdressing he kept no monthly or yearly account, but he shows it inclusively, for the whole period, as more than a talent of silver. [21] For the father's tomb, though he did not spend twenty-five minae of the five thousand drachmae shown, he charges half this sum to himself, and has entered half against them.10 Then for the Dionysia,11 gentlemen of the jury,—I do not think it irrelevant to mention this also,—he showed sixteen drachmae as the price of a lamb, and charged eight of these drachmae to the children: this entry especially roused our anger.12 And so it is, gentlemen: in the midst of heavy losses the sufferers of wrong are sometimes wounded as much by little things; for these expose in so very clear a light the wickedness of the wrongdoer. [22] Then for the other festivals and sacrifices he charged to their account an expenditure of more than four thousand drachmae; and he added a multitude of things which he counted in to make up his total, as though he had been named in the will as guardian of the children merely in order that he might show them accounts instead of money, and reduce them from wealth to utter poverty, and that they might forget whatever ancestral enemy they might have to wage war on their guardian for stripping them of their patrimony! [23] But yet, had he wished to act justly by the children, he was free to act in accordance with the laws which deal with orphans for the guidance of incapable as well as capable guardians: he might have farmed out the estate and so got rid of a load of cares, or have purchased land and used the income for the children's support; whichever course he had taken, they would have been as rich as anyone in Athens. But the fact is, in my opinion, that at no time has he had any notion of turning their fortune into real estate, but has meant to keep their property for himself, assuming that his own wickedness ought to be heir of the wealth of the deceased. [24] Most monstrous of all, gentlemen of the jury, he asserts that in sharing with Alexis, son of Aristodicus, the service of equipping a warship, he paid a contribution of forty-eight minae, and has entered half of this against these orphan children, whom the State has not only exempted during their childhood, but has freed from all public services for a year after they have been certified to be of age. Yet he, their grandfather, illegally exacts from his daughter's children one half of his expenses in equipping a warship! [25] Again, he dispatched to the Adriatic a cargo of two talents' value, and told their mother, at the moment of its sailing, that it was at the risk of the children13; but when it went safely through and the value was doubled,14 He declared that the venture was his. But if he is to lay the losses to their charge, and keep the successful gains for himself, he will have no difficulty in making the account show on what the money has been spent, while he will find it easy to enrich himself from the money of others. [26] To set the reckoning before you in detail, gentlemen of the jury, would be a lengthy affair; but when with some trouble I had got him to hand over the balance-sheet, in the presence of witnesses I asked Aristodicus, brother of Alexis,—the latter being now dead—whether he had the account for the equipment of a warship. He told me that he had, and we went to his house and found that Diogeiton had paid Alexis a contribution of twenty-four minae towards equipping the warship. [27] But the expenditure that he showed was forty-eight minae, so that the children have been charged exactly the total of what he has spent.15 Now, what do you suppose he has done in cases of which nobody else has had cognizance, and where he managed the business alone, when in those which were conducted through others and of which information could easily be obtained he did not shrink from falsehood in mulcting his own daughter's children to an amount of twenty-four minae? Please come forward, witnesses, in support of this.“Witnesses” [28]

You have heard the witnesses, gentlemen of the jury. I will now base my reckoning against him on the sum which he did eventually confess to holding,—seven talents and forty minae: not counting in any income, I will put down, as spent out of capital, a larger amount than anyone in the city has ever spent,—for two boys and their sister, an attendant and a maid, a thousand drachmae a year, a little less than three drachmae a day.16 [29] For eight years, that amounts to eight thousand drachmae; and we are left with a balance of six talents and twenty minae. For he will not be able to show that he has either had losses by pirates, or met with failure or paid off debts. …

1 In Thrace. This sentence is evidently defective.

2 See Lys. 12.11, note.

3 409 B.C. Thrasyllus was one of the commanders who were executed after Arginusae, 406 B.C.

4 This comprised the lying in state, the burial or cremation, the funeral feast, sacrifices offered on the third and ninth days, and mourning with black garments and shaven heads for thirty days.

5 In his eighteenth year: cf. Lys. 10.31.

6 i.e., in some temple.

7 A district to the north of the Acropolis.

8 Where evidently the 2000 drachmae invested by Diodotus （see Lys. 32.6） brought in an annual supply of corn as interest.

9 At this period the daily cost of food for an adult could be reckoned at one obol: in the present case, for the food （other than cereal） of three children, the charge of five obols is at least twice what it should be. A more reasonable scale is suggested by the speaker at Lys. 32.28 below.

10 Having stated that the tomb cost 50 minae （5000 drachmae）, he undertook to pay half of this himself, and charge the other half to the children's estate: but this latter half covered the actual cost.

11 Orphans' estates were not required to contribute to the offerings at the State festivals.

12 Here again the actual cost was probably no more than the half-share charged to the children. Here again the actual cost was probably no more than the half-share charged to the children.

13 It was unlawful for a guardian to venture a ward's money in bottomry, and the Adriatic was notoriously perilous for navigation.

14 Hume （Essay on the Populousness of Ancient Nations） has remarked on the fact that a profit of 100 per cent on such a venture does not seem to have been thought extraordinary.

15 Again the whole of his actual contribution （24 minae） has been charged to the children's estate, as a half-share of an exaggerated total.

16 Cf. a similar estate in Dem. 27.36.

Among many noble feats, gentlemen, for which it is right to remember Heracles, we ought to recall the fact that he was the first, in his affection for the Greeks, to convene this contest. For previously the cities regarded each other as strangers. [2] But he, when he had crushed despotism and arrested outrage, founded a contest of bodily strength, a challenge of wealth, and a display of intelligence in the fairest part of Greece, that we might meet together for all these enjoyments alike of our eyes and of our ears, because he judged that our assembly here would be a beginning of mutual amity amongst the Greeks. [3] The project of it, then, was his; and so I have not come here to talk trivialities or to wrangle over words: I take that to be the business of utterly futile professors in straits for a livelihood; but I think it behoves a man of principle and civic worth to be giving his counsel on the weightiest questions, when I see Greece in this shameful plight, with many parts of her held subject by the foreigner, and many of her cities ravaged by despots.1 [4] Now if these afflictions were due to weakness, it would be necessary to acquiesce in our fate: but since they are due to faction and mutual rivalry, surely we ought to desist from the one and arrest the other, knowing that, if rivalry befits the prosperous, the most prudent views befit people in a position like ours. [5] For we see both the gravity of our dangers and their imminence on every side: you are aware that empire is for those who command the sea, that the King2 has control of the money, that the Greeks are in thrall to those who are able to spend it, that our master possesses many ships, and that the despot of Sicily3 has many also. [6] We ought therefore to relinquish our mutual warfare, and with a single purpose in our hearts to secure our salvation; to feel shame for past events and fear for those that lie in the future, and to compete with our ancestors, by whom the foreigner, in grasping at the land of others, was deprived of his own, and who expelled the despots and established freedom for all in common. [7] But I wonder at the Lacedaemonians most of all: what can be their policy in tolerating the devastation of Greece, when they are leaders of the Greeks by the just claims alike of their inborn valor and their martial science, and when they alone have their dwelling-places unravaged though unwalled and, strangers to faction and defeat, observe always the same rules of life? Wherefore it may be expected that the liberty they possess will never die, and that having achieved the salvation of Greece in her past dangers they are providing against those that are to come. [8] Now the future will bring no better opportunity than the present. We ought to view the disasters of those who have been crushed, not as the concern of others, but as our own: let us not wait for the forces of both our foes to advance upon ourselves, but while there is yet time let us arrest their outrage. [9] For who would not be mortified to see how they have grown strong through our mutual warfare? Those incidents, no less awful than disgraceful, have empowered our dire oppressors to do what they have done, and have hindered the Greeks from taking vengeance for their wrongs. …

1 Cf. Lys. 2.59.

2 Artaxerxes II., who reigned 405-362 B.C.

3 Dionysius I of Syracuse, who reigned 405-367 B.C.

At the very moment when we were supposing, men of Athens, that the disasters that have befallen her have left behind them sufficient reminders to the city to prevent even our descendants from desiring a change of constitution, these men are seeking to deceive us, after our grievous sufferings and our experience of both systems, with the selfsame decrees with which they have tricked us twice before. [2] It is not at them that I wonder, but at you who listen to them, for being the most forgetful of mankind, or the readiest to suffer injury from such men as these; who shared by mere chance in the operations at the Peiraeus, but whose feelings were with the party of the town. What, I ask, was the object of returning from your exile, if by your votes you are to enslave yourselves? [3] Now I, men of Athens, am not debarred on account either of means or of birth, but in both respects have the advantage of my opponents; and I consider that the only deliverance for the city is to let all Athenians share the citizenship. For when we possessed our walls, our ships, and money and allies, far from proposing to exclude any Athenian, we actually granted the right of marriage to the Euboeans.1 Shall we debar today even our existing citizens? [4] No, if you will be advised by me; nor, after losing our walls, shall we denude ourselves of our forces,—large numbers of our infantry, our cavalry and our archers: for, if you hold fast to these, you will make your democracy secure, will be more victorious over your enemies, and will be more useful to your allies. You are well aware that in the previous oligarchies of our time it was not the possessors of land who controlled the city: many of them were put to death, and many were expelled from the city; [5] and the people, after recalling them, restored your city to you, but did not venture to participate in it themselves. Thus, if you take my advice, you will not be depriving your benefactors, so far as you may, of their native land, nor be placing more confidence in words than in deeds, in the future than in the past, especially if you remember the champions of oligarchy, who in speech make war on the people,2 but in fact are aiming at your property; and this they will acquire when they find you destitute of allies. [6]

And then they ask us, when such is our plight, what deliverance there can be for the city, unless we do as the Lacedaemonians demand. But I call upon them to tell us what profit will accrue to the people if we obey their orders. If we do not, it will be far nobler to die fighting than to pass a manifest sentence of death upon ourselves. [7] For I believe that if I can persuade you, the danger will be common to both sides … 3

And I observe the same attitude in both the Argives and the Mantineans, each inhabiting their own land,—the former bordering on the Lacedaemonians, the latter dwelling near them; in the one case, their number is no greater than ours, in the other it is less than three thousand. [8] For their enemies know that, often as they may invade the territories of these peoples, as often will they march out to oppose them under arms, so that they see no glory in the venture: if they should be victorious, they could not enslave them, and if they should be defeated, they must deprive themselves of the advantages that they already possess. The more they prosper, the less is their appetite for risk. [9] We also, men of Athens, held these views, when we had command over the Greeks; and we deemed it a wise course to suffer our land to be ravaged without feeling obliged to fight in its defence. For our interest lay in neglecting a few things in order to conserve many advantages. But today, when the fortune of battle has deprived us of all these, and our native land is all that is left to us, we know that only this venture holds out hopes of our deliverance. [10] But surely we ought to remember that heretofore, when we have gone to the support of others who were victims of injury, we have set up many a trophy over our foes on alien soil, and so ought now to act as valiant defenders of our country and of ourselves: let us trust in the gods, and hope that they will stand for justice on the side of the injured. [11] Strange indeed would it be, men of Athens, if after fighting the Lacedaemonians, in the time of our exile, to achieve our return, we should take to flight, when we have returned, to avoid fighting! And will it not be shameful if we sink to such a depth of baseness that, whereas our ancestors risked their all merely for the freedom of their neighbors, you do not dare even to make war for your own? …

1 Normally the marriage tie was only recognized as between persons of Athenian birth.

2 i.e., they pretend to be battling with the principle of democracy, but are really busy with robbery.

3 There is probably a gap here in the text.