Before the Council: In Defense of Mantitheus at His Scrutiny

So if any of you are incensed against those who claim the management of the city’s affairs and yet evade its dangers, you can have no right to regard me with any such feeling; for I not only carried out my orders with zeal, but I was also forward to face danger. I acted in this way, not because I did not think it a serious thing to do battle with the Lacedaemonians, but in order that, if ever I should be involved in an unjust prosecution, the better opinion that you would form of me on this account might avail to secure me the full measure of my rights. Now let the witnesses to this come forward, please.