Concerning the Team of Horses

[*](It should be noted that we have only the second part of the speech, the eulogy of Alcibiades the elder; the first part must have presented the statement of facts and the citation of evidence.)So then, concerning the team of horses[*](The “team” consisted of four race-horses.)—that my father was in possession of them, not by having taken them away from Teisias, but by having purchased them from the Argive state—you have heard both the Argive ambassadors and the others conversant with the facts testify. But in just this same fashion all are accustomed maliciously to accuse me.

For they obtain leave to bring actions against me on private complaints, but make their accusations on behalf of the interests of the state, and they spend more time in slandering my father than they do in informing you with respect to their sworn charges; and so great is their contempt of the law that they claim personal satisfaction from me for the wrongs which, as they say, you suffered at my father's hands.

But it is my opinion that charges involving the public interest have nothing to do with private suits; but as Teisias often reproaches me with my father's banishment, and is more zealous concerning your affairs than he is regarding his own, I must address my defense to these matters. Certainly I should be ashamed, if I were to seem to any of my fellow-citizens to have less concern for my father's good name than for my own peril.

Now so far as the older men are concerned, a brief statement could have sufficed: for they all know that the same men were responsible for the destruction of the democracy and for my father's exile; but for the benefit of the younger men, who have lived after the events and have often heard the slanderers, I will begin my exposition from an earlier time.

Now the persons who first plotted against the democracy and established the Four Hundred,[*](The Revolution of the Four Hundred in 411 B.C. conducted the Athenian government for only a few months.) inasmuch as my father, although he was repeatedly invited to join them would not do so, seeing that he was a vigorous opponent of their activities and a loyal supporter of the people, judged that they were powerless to upset the established order until he was removed out of their way.

And since they knew that in matters pertaining to the gods the city would be most enraged if any man should be shown to be violating the Mysteries,[*](The Eleusinian Mysteries were celebrated annually at Eleusis in Attica and were performed in honor of Demeter and her daughter Persephone.) and that in other matters if any man should dare to attempt the overthrow of the democracy, they combined both these charges and tried to bring an action of impeachment before the senate. They asserted that my father was holding meetings of his political club with a view to revolution, and that these members of the club, when dining together in the house of Pulytion,[*](Cf. Andoc. 1.12.) had given a performance of the Mysteries.

The city was greatly excited by reason of the gravity of the charges, and a meeting of the Assembly was hastily called at which my father so clearly proved that the accusers were lying that the people would have been glad to punish them, and furthermore elected him general for the Sicilian expedition.[*](The ill-fated Sicilian Expedition, 415-413 B.C.) Thereupon he sailed away, judging that he had been already cleared of their calumnies; but his accusers, having united the Council and having made the public speakers subservient to themselves, again revived the matter and suborned informers.

Why need I say more? They did not cease until they had recalled my father from the expedition and had put to death some of his friends and had banished others from the city. But when he had learned the power of his enemies and the misfortunes of his friends, although he was of opinion that he was being grossly wronged because they would not try him when he was in Athens but were for condemning him in his absence, not even in these circumstances did my father see fit to desert to the enemy;

on the contrary, even in exile he was so scrupulous to avoid injuring his city that he went to Argos and remained quietly there. But his enemies reached such a pitch of insolence that they persuaded you to banish him from Greece entirely, to inscribe his name on a column as a traitor, and to send envoys to demand his surrender by the Argives. And he, being at a loss to know what to do in the misfortunes which encompassed him and everywhere hemmed him in, as he saw no other means of safety, was compelled at last to take refuge with the Lacedaemonians.

These are the actual facts; but such an excess of insolence have my father's enemies that they accuse him, who was exiled in so illegal a manner as if he had committed outrageous crimes, and try to ruin his reputation by saying that he caused the fortification of Decelea,[*](Decelea was a fort on Mt. Parnes, fourteen miles N.E. from Athens. The Lacedaemonians occupied it in 413 B.C. Cf. Lys. 14.30, and for the facts Thuc. 6.91.6.) and the revolt of the islands, and that he became the enemy's counsellor.

And sometimes they pretend to despise him,[*](Cf. Lys. 14.35-38.) saying that in no respect did he excel his contemporaries; yet at the present time they blame him for all that has happened and say that the Lacedaemonians have learned from him the art of war—they who can teach the rest of the world this accomplishment! As for me, if I had sufficient time, I could easily prove that some of those things he did justly, but that others are unjustly imputed to him. Yet the most shocking thing that could happen would be this—if, while after his exile my father was recompensed, I, because he was exiled, should be penalized.

I think, however, that in justice he should obtain from you a full pardon; for you, when banished by the Thirty Tyrants,[*](After the capture of Athens by the Spartans in 404 B.C. an oligarchy known as the Thirty Tyrants was established. The cruelty of their government caused many of the democratic party to go into exile. Led by Thrasybulus these exiles were restored when the Thirty were overthrown in 403 B.C.) experienced the same misfortunes as he. Wherefore you should reflect how each of you was affected, what thoughts you each had, and what peril each would not have undergone so as to bring his own banishment to an end and to return to his native land, and to be avenged on those who banished him.

To what city, or friend, or stranger did you not apply, to entreat them to help you to get back to your country? From what effort did you abstain in your endeavors to be restored? Did you not seize the Piraeus and destroy the crops in the fields and harry the land and set fire to the suburbs and finally assault the walls?

And so vehemently did you believe that these actions were justifiable that you were more indignant with those of your fellow-exiles who were inactive than with those who had been the authors of your misfortunes. It is not fair, therefore, to censure those who wanted the same things which you desired, nor yet to regard all those men as base who, when they were exiles, sought to return, but much more should you condemn those oligarchs who, remaining in Athens, did deeds which deserved the penalty of exile; nor is it fair that you, in judging what sort of citizen my father was, should begin at the time when he had no art in the city's affairs;

on the contrary, you should look to that earlier time and observe how he served the people before his exile, and call to mind that with two hundred heavy-armed soldiers he caused the most powerful cities in the Peloponnesus to revolt from the Lacedaemonians,[*](419 B.C. Cf. Thuc. 5.52.2.) and brought them into alliance with you, and in what perils he involved the Lacedaemonians themselves, and how he behaved as general in Sicily. For these services he is deserving of your gratitude; but for that which happened when he was in misfortune it is those who banished him whom you would justly hold responsible.

Remember, too, I beg you, the many benefits he conferred upon the city after his return from exile, and, even before that time, the state of affairs here when you received him back: the democracy had been overthrown,[*](By the Revolution of the Four Hundred.) the citizens were in a state of civil war, the army was disaffected toward the government established here, and both parties had reached such a state of madness that neither had any hope of salvation.

For the one party[*](the Athenian army and fleet, sympathetic the the democracy, were at the island of Samos (Thuc. 8.82 and Thuc. 8.86).) regarded those who were in possession of the city as greater enemies than the Lacedaemonians[*](The oligarchs in Athens.) and the other were making overtures to the Spartan forces in Decelea, judging that it was preferable to hand over their country to its enemies rather than to give a share in the rights of citizenship to those who were fighting for the city.

Such was the state of mind of the citizens: the enemy was in control of land and sea; your financial resources were exhausted, while the Persian king was supplying them with funds; furthermore, ninety ships had come from Phoenicia[*](The Persian king depended largely upon Phoenicia for ships of war.) to Aspendus[*](Aspendus, a town in Asia Minor, in Pamphylia, was situated on the river Eurymedon.) and were prepared to aid the Lacedaemonians. By so many misfortunes and such perils was the city beset

when the army summoned my father, and he did not treat them with disdain in their plight, nor did he rebuke them for the past, nor did he deliberate about the future; on the contrary, he chose at once to suffer any misfortune with his country rather than to enjoy prosperity with the Lacedaemonians, and he made it manifest to all that he was warring on those who had banished him and not on you, and that his heart was set on a return to Athens and not on her ruin.

Having thrown in his lot with you, he persuaded Tissaphernes[*](Persian satrap of western Asia Minor from 414 B.C.) not to furnish the Lacedaemonians with money, checked the defection of your allies, distributed pay from his own resources to the soldiers, restored political power to the people, reconciled the citizens, and turned back the Phoenician fleet.