Against Eratosthenes, who had been One of the Thirty: Spoken by Lysias Himself

But these facts you comprehend of yourselves, and I doubt if I need provide any witnesses. Some, however, I will; for not only am I in need of a rest, but some of you will prefer to hear the same statements from as many persons as possible.

Witnesses

By your leave, I will inform you also about Theramenes, as briefly as I can. I request you to listen, both in my own interest, and in that of the city; and one thing let no one imagine,—that I am accusing Theramenes when it is Eratosthenes who is on his trial. For I am told that he will plead in defence that he was that man’s friend, and took part in the same acts.

Why, I suppose, if he had been in the government with Themistocles he would have been loud in claiming that he worked for the construction of the walls,[*](i.e., how eagerly he would have claimed participation in the great work of Themistocles, if he is now to seek shelter even in the discredit of helping Theramenes to destroy it!) when he claims that he worked with Theramenes for their demolition? For I do not see that there is any parity of merit between them. The one constructed the walls against the wish of the Lacedaemonians, whereas the other demolished them by beguilement of the citizens.

Thus the reverse of what was to be expected has overtaken the city. For the friends of Theramenes deserved no less to perish with him, except such as might be found acting in opposition to him: but here I see them referring their defence to him, and we have his associates attempting to win credit as though he had been the author of many benefits, and not of grievous injuries.

He, first of all, was chiefly responsible for the former oligarchy,[*](After the disaster in Sicily, 412 B.C.) by having prompted your choice of the government of the Four Hundred. His father, who was one of the Commissioners,[*](Ten persons specially appointed to revise the constitution.) was active in the same direction, while he himself, being regarded as a strong supporter of the system, was appointed general by the party.

So long as he found favour, he showed himself loyal; but when he saw Peisander, Callaeschrus and others getting in advance of him, and your people no longer disposed to hearken to them, immediately his jealousy of them, combined with his fear of you, threw him into co-operation with Aristocrates.

Desiring to be reputed loyal to your people, he accused Antiphon and Archeptolemus, his best friends, and had them put to death; and such was the depth of his villainy that, to make credit with those men,[*](i.e., the oligarchs.) he enslaved you, while also, to make credit with you, he destroyed his friends.

Held in favour and the highest estimation, he who by his own choice offered to save the city, by his own choice destroyed it, asserting that he had discovered a capital and most valuable expedient. He undertook to arrange a peace without giving any hostages or demolishing the walls or surrendering the ships: he would tell nobody what it was, but bade them trust him.

And you, men of Athens, while the Council of the Areopagus were working for your safety, and many voices were heard in opposition to Theramenes, were aware that, though other people keep secrets to baffle the enemy, he refused to mention amongst his own fellow citizens what he was going to tell the enemy: yet nevertheless you entrusted to him your country, your children, your wives and yourselves.

Not one of the things that he undertook did he perform, but was so intent on his object of subduing and crippling the city that he induced you to do things which none of the enemy had ever mentioned nor any of the citizens had expected: under no compulsion from the Lacedaemonians, but of his own accord, he promised them the dismantling of the Peiraeus walls and the subversion of the established constitution; for well he knew that, if you were not utterly bereft of your hopes, you would be quick to retaliate upon him.

Finally, gentlemen, he kept the Assembly from meeting until the moment mentioned by the enemy had been carefully watched for by him, and he had sent for Lysander’s ships from Samos, and the enemy’s forces were quartered in the town.

And now, with matters thus arranged, and in the presence of Lysander, Philochares and Miltiades,[*](These last two shared with Lysander the command of the Spartan fleet.) they called the Assembly to a debate on the constitution, when no orator could either oppose them or awe them with threats, while you, instead of choosing the course most advantageous to the city, could only vote in favour of their views.

Theramenes arose, and bade you entrust the city to thirty men, and apply the system propounded by Dracontides.[*](Who himself became one of the Thirty.) But you, not withstanding your awkward plight, showed by your uproar that you would not do as he proposed for you realized that you had to choose between slavery and freedom in the Assembly that day.

Theramenes, a gentlemen (I shall cite your own selves as witnesses to this), said that he recked naught of your uproar, since he knew of many Athenians who were promoting the same kind of scheme as himself, and that his advice had the approval of Lysander and the Lacedaemonians. After him Lysander arose and said, when he had spoken at some length, that he held you guilty of breaking the truce, and that it must be a question, not of your constitution, but of your lives, if you refused to do as Theramenes demanded.

Then all the good citizens in the Assembly, perceiving the plot that had been hatched for their compulsion, either remained there and kept quiet, or took themselves off, conscious at least of this,—that they had voted nothing harmful to the city. But some few, of base nature and noxious counsels, raised their hands in favour of the commands that had been given.

For the order had been passed to them that they were to elect ten men whom Theramenes indicated, ten more whom the overseers, just appointed, should demand, and ten from amongst those present. They were so aware of your weakness, and so sure of their own power, that they knew beforehand what would be transacted in the Assembly.

For this you should rely, not on my word, but on that of Theramenes; since everything that I have mentioned was stated by him in his defence before the Council,[*](When he was accused by Critias, because of his moderate counsels, of being a traitor to the policy of the Thirty.) when he reproached the exiles with the fact that they owed their restoration to him, and not to any consideration shown by the Lacedaemonians, and reproached also his partners in the government with this,—that although he had been himself responsible for all that had been transacted in the manner that I have described, he was treated in this fashion,—he who had given them many pledges by his actions, and to whom they were plighted by their oaths.

And it is for this man, responsible as we find him for all these and other injuries and ignominies, late as well as early, great as well as small, that they[*](i.e., people who speak in his favor.) are going to have the audacity to proclaim their friendship; for Theramenes, who has suffered death, not as your champion, but as the victim of his own baseness, and has been justly punished under the oligarchy—he had already caused its ruin—as he would justly have been under democracy. Twice over[*](First by supporting the Four Hundred, and then by joining the Thirty.) did he enslave you, despising what was present,[*](Democracy.) and longing for what was absent,[*](Oligarchy.) and, while giving them the fairest name,[*](i.e., his pretext of government by the best.) setting himself up as instructor in most monstrous acts.

Well, I have dealt sufficiently with Theramenes in my accusation. You now have reached the moment in which your thoughts must have no room for pardon or for pity; when you must punish Eratosthenes and his partners in power. You should not show your superiority to the city’s foes in your fighting merely to show your inferiority to your own enemies in your voting.

Nor must you feel more gratitude to them for what they say that they mean to do than anger for what they have done; nor, while taking your measures against the Thirty in their absence,[*](At Eleusis.) acquit them in their presence; nor in your own rescue be more lax than fortune who has delivered these men into the hands of the city.