On the Trierarchic Crown

I for my part wonder why in the world these men should imprison and punish those of the sailors who desert their ships—men who receive only thirty drachmae apiece,—while you do not deal in the same manner with those of the trierarchs who do not sail with their ships yet receive thirty minae apiece for so doing; if a poor man through stress of need commits a fault, is he to be liable to the severest penalties, while, if a rich man does the same thing through shameful love of gain, is he to win pardon? Where, then, is equality for all and popular government, if you decide matters in this way?

More than this, it seems to me to be absurd that, when a man says anything contrary to law, he should, if he is convicted, be deprived of one third of his personal rights,[*](Precisely what this partial ἀτιμία (disfranchisement) was, it is impossible to state definitely.) while those guilty not of words but of acts that are illegal should pay no penalty. Surely, men of Athens, you would all say that leniency in regard to such offences merely trains up others to commit them.