Have they not taunted the most illustrious of the Athenians—the men who were the best able to benefit the city—with oligarchical and Lacedaemonian sympathies,The Athenian democracy since the days of Cleisthenes lived in continual fear of revolution. There remained a strong oligarchical party, supported by Sparta, and it was always easy to catch the ear of the Athenian demos by accusing anyone of oligarchical or Spartan sympathies. Cf. Isoc. 8.133. and never ceased until they have driven them to become in fact what they were charged with being?Is he thinking particularily of Alcibiades? Have they not by ill-treating our allies, by lodging false complaints against them,Cf. Isoc. 12.13 and 142. by stripping the best of them of their possessions—have they not so disaffected them that they have revolted against us and craved the friendship and alliance of the Lacedaemonians?

And with what results? We have been plunged into warThe Peloponnesian War.; we have seen many of our fellow-countrymen suffer, some of them dying in battle, some made prisoners of war, and others reduced to the last extremities of want; we have seen the democracy twice overthrown,First by the oligarchy of the Four Hundred in 411 B.C., secondly by the oligarchy of the Thirty Tyrants in 404 B.C., after the downfall of the Athenian Empire. the walls which defended our country torn downOne of the terms of peace at the end of the war was that the “long walls” connecting Athens with the Piraeus should be torn down.; and, worst of all, we have seen the whole city in peril of being enslaved,After her surrender to Sparta and the allies of Sparta at the close of the Peloponnesian War. See Isoc. 7.6 and note; Xen. Hell. 2.2.19-20. Cf. Isoc. 8.78, 105; Isoc. 14.23. and our enemy encamped on the Acropolis.A Spartan garrison occupied the Acropolis during the reign of the Thirty.

But I perceive, even though my feelings carry me away, that the water in the clockThe clepsydra or water-clock, which marked the time allowed to each speaker. is giving out, while I myself have fallen into thoughts and recriminations which would exhaust the day. Therefore, I pass over the multitude of calamities which these men have brought upon us; I thrust aside the throng of offenses which we might charge to their infamy, and content myself with just one word before I close.