On the Confiscation of the Property Of The Brother Of Nicias: Peroration

Now you must reflect, gentlemen of the jury, on the character that we bear as citizens ourselves, and also on the family of which we come, when we claim your pity for the wrongs that we have suffered and an award of our rights. For we are contending, not merely for our property, but for our citizenship as well: we must know whether we are to have our portion in the democracy of our city. So first let me remind you of our uncle, Nicias:

in all that he did for your common weal while using his own judgement, he will be found everywhere to have been the author of many benefits to the State, and to have inflicted a great number of grievous injuries on the enemy; but in all that he was compelled to do, not of his own wish but against his will, he bore no slight part of the injuries himself, while the responsibility for the disaster ought in fairness to lie with those who persuaded you,[*](The reference is to the Sicilian expedition in 415 B.C., which Nicias had opposed; cf. Thuc. 6.8 ff.)

seeing that of his own loyalty to you and of his merit he afforded proof in your successes and your enemies’ failures. For as your general, he took many cities, and many were the splendid trophies of the foe’s defeats that he set up; to mention them severally would be wearisome.