Against Agoratus: In Pursuance of a Writ

When they were brought up before the Council, Agoratus deposed first the names of his sureties, then those of the generals and commanders, and then those of some other citizens. This was the beginning of the whole trouble. That he deposed the names, I think he himself will admit: failing that, I shall convict him as taken in the act. So answer me.

InterrogationNow, they wanted him, gentlemen of the jury, to depose the names of yet more people; so firmly determined were the Council to work some mischief that they would not believe that he had yet given them the whole truth in his accusation. Well, he willingly deposed against all those men, with no compulsion upon him.

When the Assembly met in the theater at Munichia, some were so extremely anxious to have information laid before the people also in regard to the generals and commanders—as to the others, it was enough to have had it laid before the Council only—that they brought him up there also, before the people. Now answer me, Agoratus: you will not, I suppose, deny what you did in the presence of all the Athenians.

InterrogationHe admits it himself; but however, the decrees of the people shall be read to you.

DecreesThat this man Agoratus deposed the names of those men, both before the Council and before the people, and that he is their murderer, I believe you understand well enough. My further point, that he was the author of all the city’s troubles, and does not deserve to be pitied by anybody, I think I can make plain to you in summary fashion.

For it was just when those persons had been arrested and imprisoned that Lysander sailed into your harbors, that your ships were surrendered to the Lacedaemonians, that the walls were demolished, that the Thirty were established, and that every conceivable misery befell the city.

And then, as soon as the Thirty were established, they promptly brought these men to trial before the Council; whereas the people had decreed that it should be

before the court of two thousand.

DecreeNow if they had been tried before the proper court, they would have easily escaped harm; for by that time you were all apprised of the evil plight of the city, though you were unable at that stage to be of further service to her. But as it was, they were brought before the Council which sat under the Thirty.[*](Cf. above, Lys. 13.20.) And the trial was conducted in a manner that you yourselves well know:

the Thirty were seated on the benches which are now the seats of the presiding magistrates; two tables were set before the Thirty, and the vote had to be deposited, not in urns, but openly on these tables,—the condemning vote on the further one[*](i.e., nearest to the Thirty. The text here has a short gap.)—so what possible chance of escape had any of them?

In a word, all those who had entered that Council chamber for their trial were condemned to death: not one was acquitted, except this man Agoratus; him they let off, as being a benefactor. And in order that you may know of the large number done to death by this man, I propose to read you their names.

NamesNow, when sentence of death, gentlemen, had been passed on them, and they had to die, each of them sent for his sister, or his mother, or his wife, or any female relative that he had, to see them in the prison, in order that they might take the last farewell of their people before they should end their days.

In particular, Dionysodorus sent for my sister—she was his wife—to see him in the prison. On receiving the message she came, dressed in a black cloak[*](Some words describing another sign of mourning seem to be missing here. . . .)

as was natural in view of the sad fate that had befallen her husband. In the presence of my sister, Dionysodorus, after disposing of his personal property as he thought fit, referred to this man Agoratus as responsible for his death, and charged me and Dionysius his brother here,

and all his friends to execute his vengeance upon Agoratus; and he charged his wife, believing her to be with child by him, that if she should bear a son she should tell the child that Agoratus had taken his father’s life, and should bid him execute his father’s vengeance on the man for his murder. To show the truth of what I state, I will produce witnesses to these facts.

WitnessesSo then these persons, men of Athens, lost their lives through the depositions of Agoratus. But after the Thirty had cleared them out of their way, you know well enough, I imagine, what a multitude of miseries next befell the city; and for all of them this man, by taking those people’s lives, was responsible.

It gives me pain, indeed, to recall the calamities that have befallen the city, but it is a necessity, gentlemen of the jury, at the present moment, so that you may know how richly Agoratus deserves your pity! For you know the character and number of the citizens who were brought away from Salamis,[*](Cf. Lys. 12.52.) and the way in which they were destroyed by the Thirty. You know what a great number of the people of Eleusis shared that calamity.

You remember also our people here who were haled to prison on account of private enmities; and who, having done no harm to the city, were compelled to perish by the most shameful, the most infamous, of deaths. Some left elderly parents behind them, who were expecting to be supported in their old age by their own children and, when they should end their days, to be laid by them in the grave; others left sisters unwedded, and others little children who still required much tendance.

What sort of feelings, gentlemen, do you think are theirs towards this man, or what kind of vote would they give, if it rested with them, when by his act they have been deprived of their best comforts? You recollect, again, how the walls were demolished, the ships surrendered to the enemy, the arsenals destroyed, our Acropolis occupied by the Lacedaemonians, and the whole strength of the city crippled, so that our city was sunk to a level with the smallest in the world!