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

Now Eucrates, his brother, who was my father, just after the last sea-fight[*](At Aegospotami, 405 B.C.) had taken place, gave signal evidence of his loyal devotion to your democracy. For after our defeat in the sea-fight he was elected general by you and, although invited to take part in the oligarchy by those who were plotting against the people, he refused to listen to them.

He was involved in the kind of crisis[*](The oligarchic revolution of the Thirty, 404 B.C.) in which the majority of men not only shift about according to circumstances, but also yield to the vagaries of fortune. The democracy was faced with failure; he was not being driven out of public life, nor did he nurse any private enmity against those who were about to be the rulers. And yet, although it was open to him to become one of the Thirty and to have as much power as any man, he chose rather to perish in working for your safety than to endure the sight of the demolition of the walls, the surrender of the ships to the enemy and the enslavement of your people.

And, not long after that, Niceratus, who was my cousin and Nicias’s son, and a loyal supporter of your democracy, was arrested and put to death by the Thirty: neither his birth nor his means nor his age could be thought to disqualify him for a part in the government; but it was supposed that he was in such high credit with your democracy on his own account as well as on that of his ancestors that he could never be zealous for a different government.