Hellenica

And Euphron, seized with fear at these proceedings, fled for refuge to the port of the Sicyonians, and after summoning Pasimelus to come from Corinth, through him handed over the port to the Lacedaemonians and appeared once more in their alliance, saying that he had all the time remained faithful to the Lacedaemonians. For he said that at the same time when a vote was taken in the city as to whether the Sicyonians should decide to revolt from them, he, with a few others, voted against it;

and that afterwards he had set up a democracy out of his desire to avenge himself on those who had betrayed him. And at this moment, he said, all who were traitors to you are in exile by my act. Now if I had found myself able, I should have gone over to you with the entire city. As it is, I have given over to you the port, over which alone I had gained control. Those who heard him say these words were many, but how many believed him is by no means clear.

However, since I have begun it, I desire to finish the story of Euphron. When the aristocrats and the commons at Sicyon had fallen into strife, Euphron obtained a force of mercenaries from Athens and came back again. And with the help of the commons he was master of the town; a Theban governor,[*](366 B.C.) however, held the Acropolis, and since Euphron realized that with the Thebans holding the Acropolis he could not possibly be master of the state, he got together money and set out with the intention of persuading the Thebans, by means of this money, to banish the aristocrats and give the state over to him again.

When, however, the former exiles learned of his journey and his plans, they likewise proceeded to Thebes. And as they saw him in familiar association with the Theban officials, they were seized with fear that he might accomplish what he wanted, and some of them took the risk and slew Euphron upon the Acropolis while the officials and the senate were in session there. But the officials brought those who had done the deed before the senate and spoke as follows:

Fellow citizens, we arraign on the capital charge these men who have slain Euphron, seeing, as we do, that while right-minded men commit no unjust or unrighteous deed, and the wicked, although they commit them, strive to do them in secret, these persons have so far surpassed all mankind in hardihood and villainy that in the presence of the very magistrates and in the presence of you, who alone have authority to decide who shall die and who shall not, they took decision into their own hands and slew the man. Therefore if these men do not suffer the extreme penalty, who will ever have the courage to visit our city? And what will become of the city if any one who so desires is to be allowed to slay a man before he has made known for what purpose he has come here? We, then, arraign these men as utterly unrighteous, unjust, and lawless, and as[*](366 B.C.) having shown the utmost contempt for our city. It is for you, after you have heard, to inflict upon them such penalty as they seem to you to deserve.

Such were the words of the officials; as for those who had slain Euphron, all except one denied that they had been the perpetrators of the deed; but one had admitted it, and began his defence in some such words as these: Surely, Thebans, to feel contempt for you is not possible for a man if he knows that you have authority to do with him as you will; in what, then, did I trust when I here slew the man? Be well assured that it was first of all in the belief that I was doing a just deed, and secondly in the thought that you would decide rightly; for I knew that you likewise, in dealing with the party of Archias and Hypates,[*]( See v. iv. 2-12.) whom you found to have performed acts like those of Euphron, did not wait for a vote, but punished them as soon as you found yourselves able to do so, believing that those who are manifestly unrighteous and those who are plainly traitors and attempting to be tyrants are already condemned to death by all mankind.