Concerning the Team of Horses

As to his later services, it would be an arduous task to enumerate them one by one—all the ships of war that he subsequently captured, or the battles that he won, or the cities he took by storm or by persuasion made your friends. But although innumerable dangers beset the city at that time, never did the enemy erect a trophy of victory over you while my father was your leader.

I am aware that I am omitting many of my father's exploits as your general; I have not recounted them in detail because nearly all of you recall the facts. But my father's private life they revile with excessive indecency and audacity, and they are not ashamed, now that he is dead, to use a license of speech concerning him which they would have feared to employ while he lived.

Nay, they have come to such a pitch of folly that they think they will win repute with both you and with the world at large if they indulge in the wildest possible abuse of him; as if all did not know that it is in the power of the vilest of men to abuse with insulting words, not only the best of men, but even the gods.

Perhaps it is foolish for me to take to heart all that has been said; nevertheless, I desire very much to recount to you my father's private pursuits, going back a little to make mention of his ancestors, that you may know that from early times our standing and services have been the greatest and most honorable among the citizens of Athens.

My father on the male side belonged to the Eupatrids,[*](The Eupatrids (sons of noble sires) were the nobles, or patricians, in Athens of the early time.) whose noble birth is apparent from the very name. On the female side he was of the Alcmeonidae,[*](Descendants of Alcmeon, one of the greatest families in early Athens, expelled from the city in 595 B.C.) who left behind a glorious memorial of their wealth; for Alcmeon[*](Son of Megacles.) was the first Athenian to win at Olympia with a team of horses, and the goodwill which they had toward the people they displayed in the time of the tyrants. For they were kinsmen of Pisistratus[*](Pisistratus was a tyrant of Athens in the sixth century B.C.) and before he came to power were closest to him of all the citizens, but they refused to share his tyranny; on the contrary, they preferred exile rather than to see their fellow-citizens enslaved.

And during the forty years[*](Roughly speaking the period of the rule of Pisistratus and his sons, 560-510 B.C.) of civic discord the Alcmeonidae were hated so much more bitterly than all other Athenians by the tyrants that whenever the tyrants had the upper hand they not only razed their dwellings, but even dug up their tombs[*](Cf. Hdt. 5.71.); and so completely were the Alcmeonidae trusted by their fellow-exiles that they continued during all that time to be leaders of the people. At last, Alcibiades and Cleisthenes[*](Cleisthenes was the reformer of the Athenian constitution and founder of the democracy.)—the former my great-grandfather on my father's side, the latter my father's maternal great-grandfather—assuming the leadership of those in exile, restored the people to their country, and drove out the tyrants.

And they established that democratic form of government which so effectively trained the citizens in bravery that single-handed they conquered in battle[*](Marathon, 490 B.C.) the barbarians who had attacked all Greece and they won so great renown for justice that the Greeks voluntarily put in their hands the dominion of the sea; and they made Athens so great in her power and her other resources that those who allege that she is the capital of Greece[*](Cf. Isoc. 15.299.) and habitually apply to her similar exaggerated expressions appear to be speaking the truth.

Now this friendship with the people, which was, as I have shown, so ancient, genuine, and based upon services of the greatest importance, my father inherited from his ancestors. My father himself was left an orphan (for his father[*](Cleinias.) died in battle at Coronea[*](A town in Boeotia where the Athenians were defeated by the Boeotians in 466 B.C.)) and became the ward of Pericles, whom all would acknowledge to have been the most moderate, the most just, and the wisest of the citizens. For I count this also among his blessings that, being of such origin, he was fostered, reared, and educated under the guardianship of a man of such character.

When he was admitted to citizenship, he showed himself not inferior to those whom I have mentioned, nor did he think it fitting that he should lead a life of ease, pluming himself upon the brave deeds of his ancestors; on the contrary, from the beginning he was so fired with ambition that he thought that even their great deeds should be held in remembrance through his own. And first of all, when Phormio[*](A famous Athenian general.) led a thousand of the flower of Athenian soldiers to Thrace,[*](Expedition to recover the city of Potidaea in 439 B.C. Thucydides (Thuc. 1.64.2) speaks of 1600 hoplites. Cf. Plat. Sym. 220 for the award of valor given to Alcibiades.) my father served with this expedition, and so distinguished himself in the perilous actions of the campaign that he was crowned and received a full suit of armour from his general.

Really what is required of the man who is thought worthy of the highest praise? Should he not, when serving with the bravest of the citizens, be thought worthy of the prize of valor, and when leading an army against the best of the Greeks in all the battles show his superiority to them? My father, then, in his youth did win that prize of valor and in later life did achieve the latter.

After this he married my mother[*](Hipparet.); and I believe that in her he also won a glorious prize of valor. For her father was Hipponicus,[*](Son of Callias, noted for his wealth.) first in wealth of all the Greeks and second in birth to none of the citizens, most honored and admired of his contemporaries. The richest dowry and fairest reputation went with his daughter's hand; and although all coveted union with her, and only the greatest thought themselves worthy, it was my father whom Hipponicus chose from among them all and desired to make his son-in-law.

About the same time my father, seeing that the festival assembly at Olympia was beloved and admired by the whole world and that in it the Greeks made display of their wealth, strength of body, and training, and that not only the athletes were the objects of envy but that also the cities of the victors became renowned, and believing moreover that while the public services performed in Athens redound to the prestige, in the eyes of his fellow-citizens, of the person who renders them, expenditures in the Olympian Festival, however, enhance the city's reputation throughout all Greece,

reflecting upon these things, I say, although in natural gifts and in strength of body he was inferior to none, he disdained the gymnastic contests, for he knew that some of the athletes were of low birth, inhabitants of petty states, and of mean education, but turned to the breeding of race-horses, which is possible only for those most blest by Fortune and not to be pursued by one of low estate, and not only did he surpass his rivals, but also all who had ever before won the victory.

For he entered a larger number of teams in competition than even the mightiest cities had done, and they were of such excellence that he came out first, second, and third.[*](Cf. Thuc. 6.16.2 and Plut. Alc. 11, who give the same testimony; Alcibiades entered seven teams. Cf. Plutarch, Alcibiades: "His horse-breeding was famous, among other things, for the number of his racing-chariots. He was the only man, not excluding king, who ever entered at Olympia as many as seven. And his winning not only first place but second and fourth according to Thucydides—second and third according to Euripides—is the highest and most honorable distinction ever won in this field. Euripides' Ode contains the following passage: “‘But I will sing thy praises, son of Cleinias. A noble thing is victory, noblest of the noble to do what no Greek had ever done, be first and second and third in the chariot-race, and go unwearied yet, wreathed in the olive of Zeus, to make the herald cry you.’”—(Edmonds, Lyra Graeca ii. p. 241.)) Besides this, his generosity in the sacrifices and in the other expenses connected with the festival was so lavish and magnificent that the public funds of all the others[*](i.e., the *QEWROI/, representing the other states.) were clearly less than the private means of Alcibiades alone. And when he brought his mission to an end he had caused the successes of his predecessors to seem petty in comparison with his own and those who in his own day had been victors to be no longer objects of emulation, and to future breeders of racing-steeds he left behind no possibility of surpassing him.

With regard to my father's services here in Athens as choregus and gymnasiarch and trierarch[*](These public services (referred to in Isoc. 16.32) were the liturgies , discharged by the wealthier citizens, e.g., the choregia (expenses of the public choruses); the gymnasiarchia (defraying of expenses of training athletes for the contests); and the trierarchia (the cost of equipping a war-ship and keeping it in service for a year).) I am ashamed to speak; for so greatly did he excel in all the other public duties that, although those who have served the state in less splendid fashion sing their own praises therefor, if anyone should on my father's behalf ask for a vote of thanks even in recognition of services as great as his, he would seem to be talking about petty things.

As regards his behavior as a citizen—for neither should this be passed over in silence—just as he on his part did not neglect his civic duties, but on the contrary, to so great a degree had proved himself a more loyal friend of the people than those who had gained the highest repute, that while, as you will find, the others stirred up sedition for selfish advantage, he was incurring danger on your behalf. For his devotion to the democracy was not that of one who was excluded from the oligarchy, but of one who was invited to join it: indeed, time and again when it was in his power as one of a small group, not only to rule the rest, but even to dominate them, he refused, choosing rather to suffer the city's unjust penalties rather than to be traitor to our form of government.

Of the truth of these statements no one would have convinced you as long as you still continued to be governed as a democracy; but as it was, the civil conflicts which arose clearly showed who were the democrats and who the oligarchs, as well as those who desired neither rgime, and those who laid claim to a share in both. In these uprisings your enemies twice exiled my father: on the first occasion, no sooner had they got him out of the way than they abolished the democracy; on the second, hardly had they reduced you to servitude than they condemned him to exile before any other citizen;

so exactly did my father's misfortunes affect the city and he share in her disasters. And yet many of the citizens were ill disposed toward him in the belief that he was plotting a tyranny; they held this opinion, not on the basis of his deeds, but in the thought that all men aspire to this power and that he would have the best chance of attaining it. Wherefore you would justly feel the greater gratitude to him because, while he alone of the citizens was powerful enough to have this charge[*](i.e., of plotting to become a tyrant.) brought against him, he was of opinion that as regards political power he should be on an equality with his fellow-citizens.

Because of the multitude of things that might be said on my father's behalf I am at a loss which of them it is appropriate to mention on the present occasion and which should be omitted. For always the plea that has not yet been spoken seems to me of greater importance than the arguments which have already been presented to you. And I believe that it is obvious to everyone that he must needs be most devoted to the welfare of the city who has the greatest share in her evil fortunes as well as in her good.

Well then, when Athens was prosperous, who of the citizens was more prosperous, more admired, or more envied than my father? And when she suffered ill-fortune, who was deprived of brighter hopes, or of greater wealth, or of fairer repute? Finally, when the Thirty Tyrants established their rule, while the others merely suffered exile from Athens, was he not banished from all Greece? Did not the Lacedaemonians and Lysander[*](Spartan general, victorious over the Athenians at Aegospotami (405 B.C.)) exert themselves as much to cause his death as to bring about the downfall of your dominion, in the belief that they could not be sure of the city's loyalty if they demolished her walls[*](The Long Walls, uniting Athens and its harbor Piraeus, were destroyed in 404 B.C. (Xenophon, Hall. ii. 2. 20) and were rebuilt by Conon in 394 B.C.) unless they should also destroy the man who could rebuild them?