But lest it be thought that the reason I am dwelling long on the covenant of Amnesty is
merely because it is easy when speaking on that subject to make many just observations, I
urge you to remember when you cast your votes only one thing more—that before we entered
into those agreements we Athenians were in a state of war, some of us occupying the circle
enclosed by the city's walls, others Piraeus after we had captured it,
But after we came together and exchanged the solemn pledges, we have lived so uprightly and so like citizens of one country that it seemed as if no misfortune had ever befallen us. At that time all looked upon us as the most foolish and ill-fated of mankind; now, however, we are regarded as the happiest and wisest of the Greeks.
Therefore it is incumbent upon us to inflict upon those who dare to violate the covenant,
not merely the heavy penalties prescribed by the treaty, but the most extreme, on the
ground that these persons are the cause of the greatest evils, especially those who have
lived as Callimachus has lived. For during the ten years
on the contrary, all through that period he continued to evade service and to keep his property in concealment. But when the Thirty came to power, then it was that he sailed back to Athens. And although he professes to be a friend of the people, yet he was so much more eager than anybody else to participate in the oligarchical government that, even though it meant hardship, he saw fit not to depart, but preferred to be besieged in company with those who had injured him rather than to live as a citizen with you, who likewise had been wronged by them.
And he remained as a participant in their government until that day on which you were on
the point of attacking the walls of Athens; then he left the city, not because he had come
to hate the present regime, but because he was afraid of the danger which threatened, as
he later made evident. For when the Lacedaemonians came and the democracy was shut up in
the Piraeus,
And although he has proved to be a man of such character by his conduct toward the people who occupied the Piraeus, toward those who remained in the city, and toward the whole state, he is not content to be on equal terms with the others, but seeks to be treated better than you, as if either he alone had suffered injury, or was the best of the citizens, or had met with the gravest misfortunes on your account, or had been the cause of the most numerous benefits to the city.
I could wish that you knew him as well as I do, in order that, instead of commiserating
with him over his losses, you might bear him a grudge for what he has left. The fact is,
though, that if I should try to tell of all the others who have been the objects of his
plots, of the private law-suits in which he has been involved, of the public suits which
he has entered, of the persons with whom he has conspired or against whom he has borne
false witness, not even twice as much water
But when you have heard only one of the acts which he has committed you will readily
recognize the general run of his villainy. Cratinus once had a dispute over a farm with
the brother-in-law of Callimachus. A personal encounter ensued. Having concealed a female
slave, they accused Cratinus of having crushed her head, and asserting that she had died
as a result of the wound, they brought suit against him in the court of the Palladium