It occurs to me as I am speaking what a change has come over Athens; people nowadays do
not look at things in the same way as those who lived in the city in former times. For,
when I was a boy, wealth was regarded as a thing so secure as well as admirable that
almost every one affected to own more property than he actually possessed, because he
wanted to enjoy the standing which it gave.
Now, on the other hand, a man has to be ready to defend himself against being rich as if it were the worst of crimes, and to keep on the alert if he is to avoid disaster; for it has become far more dangerous to be suspected of being well off than to be detected in crime; for criminals are pardoned or let off with slight penalties, while the rich are ruined utterly, and it will be found that the number of men who have been spoiled of their property is greater than those who have been punished for their misdeeds.
But why speak of public affairs? For I have myself, in my own affairs, suffered not a
little from this change. For when I was beginning to repair my own fortunes after I had
lost in the Peloponnesian War the patrimony which remained to me from what my father had
spent partly in rendering himself serviceable to the state and partly in educating me with
such care that I was more conspicuous then and more distinguished among the youth of my
own age and among my fellow-students than I am now among my fellow-citizens