I think that you would be as indignant as the circumstances merit if you should reflect how much more reprehensible this misdemeanor is than any others. For you will find that while the other unjust acts impair life only partially, malicious assault vitiates all our concerns, since it has destroyed many households and rendered desolate many cities.

And yet why need I waste time in speaking of the calamities of the other states? For we ourselves have twice seen the democracy overthrownIn 411 B.C., by the regime of the Four Hundred, and in 404 B.C. when the Spartans, after the capture of Athens, established the Thirty Tyrants in power. and twice we have been deprived of freedom, not by those who were guilty of other crimes, but by persons who contemned the laws and were willing to be slaves of the enemy while wantonly outraging their fellow-citizens.