On the Olive Stump

So I consider, gentlemen, that my business is to show that, when I acquired the plot, there was neither olive-tree nor stump upon it. For I conceive that in respect of the previous time, even had there been sacred olives of old upon it, I could not with justice be penalized; since if we have had no hand in their clearance, there is no relevance in our being charged as guilty of the offences of others.

For you are all aware that, among the numerous troubles that have been caused by the war, the outlying districts were ravaged by the Lacedaemonians,[*](During the Peloponnesian War Pericles kept the people inside Athens, and allowed the Lacedaemonians to devastate Attica, as he knew that the strength of Athens was on the sea, not on the land. Our friendsmay refer to Boeotian and Thessalian troops which aided the Athenians in occasional attacks on the invaders. Cf. Thuc. 2.14,19,22, etc.) while the nearer were plundered by our friends; so how can it be just that I should be punished now for the disasters that then befell the city?

And in particular, this plot of land, as having been confiscated during the war, was unsold for over three years: it is not surprising if they uprooted the sacred olives at a time in which we were unable to safeguard even our personal property. You are aware, gentlemen—especially those of you who have the supervision of such matters,—that many plots at that time were thick with private and sacred olive-trees which have now for the most part been uprooted, so that the land has become bare; and although the same people have owned these plots in the peace as in the war, you do not think fit to punish them for the up-rooting done by others.