Concerning the Team of Horses

Thus it is not only from his services to you, but also from what he suffered on your account, that you may easily recognize his loyalty. For it is self-evident that it was the people he was aiding, that he desired the same form of government as yourselves, that he suffered at the hands of the same persons, that he was unfortunate when the state was unfortunate, that he considered the same persons as you his enemies and friends, that in every way he exposed himself to danger either at your hands, or on your account,

or on your behalf, or in partnership with you, being as a citizen quite unlike Charicles,[*](Charicles was one of the most cruel of the Thirty Tyrants. Cf. Lys. 12.55; Xen. Hell. 2.3.2.) my opponent's brother-in-law, who chose to be a slave to the enemy, yet claimed the right to rule his fellow-citizens; who, when in exile, was inactive, but on his return was ever injuring the city. And yet how could one prove himself to be a baser friend or a viler enemy?

And then do you, Teisias, his brother-in-law and a member of the Council in the time of the Thirty Tyrants, have the hardihood to rake up old grudges against those of the other side, and are you not ashamed to be violating the terms of the amnesty which permits you to reside in the city, nor do you even reflect that, whenever the decision shall be made to exact punishment for past crimes, it is you who are menaced by danger more speedy and greater than mine?

For surely they will not inflict punishment on me for my father's acts and at the same time pardon you for the crimes you yourself have committed! No, assuredly it will not be found that your pleas in extenuation are anything like his! For you were not banished from your native land, but on the contrary you were a member of the government; you did not act under compulsion, but you were a willing agent; it was not in self-defense, but on our own initiative, that you were wronging your fellow-citizens, so that it is not fitting that you should be permitted by them even to enter a plea in your defense.

But on the subject of the political misdeeds of Teisias, very likely some day at his trial I shall have the opportunity of speaking at greater length. But as for you, men of the jury, I beg you not to abandon me to my enemies nor entangle me in the net of irremediable misfortunes. For even now I have had sufficient experience of evils, since at my birth I was left an orphan through my father's exile and my mother's death; and I was not yet four years of age when I was brought into peril of my life owing to my father's exile;

and while still a boy I was banished from the city by the Thirty. And when the men of the Piraeus[*](The democratic party, led by Thrasybulus, in 403 B.C. had taken Piraeus and made it their headquarters.) were restored, and all the rest recovered their possessions, I alone by the influence of my personal enemies was deprived of the of the land which the people gave us as compensation for the confiscated property.[*](After Alcibiades' condemnation as participant in the violation of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Large portions of the list of these confiscated goods are preserved in inscriptions.) And after having already suffered so many misfortunes and having twice lost my property,[*](414 B.C. and 404 B.C.) I am now the defendant in an action involving five talents.[*](The talent was not a coin, but a sum of money roughly equivalent (although it would purchase much more) to $1000 (over 200).) And although the complaint involves money, the real issue is my right to continue to enjoy citizenship.

For although the same penalties are prescribed for all by our laws, yet the legal risk is not the same for all; on the contrary, the wealthy risk a fine, but those who are in straitened circumstances, as is the case with me, are in danger of disfranchisement, and this is a misfortune greater, in my opinion, than exile; for it is a far more wretched fate to live among one's fellow-citizens deprived of civic rights than to dwell an alien among foreigners.

I entreat you, therefore, to aid me and not to suffer me to be despitefully treated by my personal enemies, or to be deprived of my fatherland, or to be made notorious by such misfortunes. The facts in the case would of themselves justly win for me your pity, even if I have not the power by my words to evoke it, since pity truly should be felt for those who are unjustly brought to trial, who are fighting for the greatest stakes, whose present condition is not in accordance with their own worth or with that of their ancestors, seeing that they have been deprived of immense wealth and have experienced life's greatest vicissitudes.

Although I have many reasons for lamenting my fate, I am especially indignant for these reasons: first, if I must be punished by this man, who should justly be punished by me; second, if I shall lose my civic rights by reason of my father's victory at Olympia, when I see other men richly rewarded for such a victory[*](For the rewards of victory at Olympia cf. Plat. Apol. 36d-e.);

and, in addition, if Teisias, a man who never did the city any good, is to remain powerful in the democracy just as he was in the oligarchy, whereas I, who injured neither party, am to be ill-treated by both; and finally, if, while in all other matters your actions are to be the opposite of those of the Thirty, you shall in regard to me show the same spirit as they, and if I, who then lost my fatherland in company with you, shall now be deprived of it by you.