Defense Against a Charge of Subverting the Democracy

And you should reflect, gentlemen, on the events that have occurred under the Thirty, in order that the errors of your enemies may lead you to take better counsel on your own affairs. For as often as you heard that the people in the city were all of one mind, you had but slight hopes of your return, judging that our concord was the worst of signs for your exile:

but as soon as you had tidings that the Three Thousand were divided by faction, that the rest of the citizens had been publicly banned from the city, that the Thirty were not all of one mind, and that those who had fears for you outnumbered those who were making war on you, you immediately began to look forward to your return and the punishment of your enemies. For it was your prayer to the gods that those men should do the things that you saw them doing, since you believed that the villainy of the Thirty would be far more useful for your salvation than the resources of the exiles for your return.

You ought therefore, gentlemen, to take the events of the past as your example in resolving on the future course of things, and to account those men the best democrats who, desiring your concord, abide by their oaths and covenants, because they hold this to be the most effective safeguard of the city and the severest punishment of her enemies. For nothing could be more vexatious to them than to learn that we are taking part in the government and to perceive at the same time that the citizens are behaving as though they had never had any fault to find with each other.

And you should know, gentlemen, that the exiles desire to see the greatest possible number of their fellow citizens not merely slandered but disfranchised; since they hope that the men who are wronged by you will be their allies, and they would gladly have the venal informers standing high in your esteem and influential in the city. For they judge the villainy of those creatures to be their own safeguard.

You will do well to remember also the events that followed the rule of the Four Hundred[*](June-September, 411 B.C.); for you will fully realize that the measures advised by these men have never brought you any advantage, while those that I recommend have always profited both parties in the State. You know that Epigenes, Demophanes and Cleisthenes, while reaping their personal gains from the city’s misfortunes, have inflicted the heaviest losses on the public weal.

For they prevailed on you to condemn several men to death without trial, to confiscate unjustly the property of many more, and to banish and disfranchise other citizens; since they were capable of taking money for the release of offenders, and of appearing before you to effect the ruin of the innocent. They did not stop until they had involved the city in seditions and the gravest disasters, while raising themselves from poverty to wealth.

But your temper moved you to welcome back the exiles, to reinstate the disfranchised in their rights, and to bind yourselves by oaths to concord with the rest. At the end of it all, you would have been more pleased to punish those who traded in slander under the democracy than those who held office under the oligarchy. And with good reason, gentlemen: for it is manifest now to all that the unjust acts of rulers in an oligarchy produce democracy, whereas the trade of slanderers in the democracy has twice led to the establishment of oligarchy. It is not right, therefore, to hearken many times to the counsels of men whose advice has not even once resulted in your profit.

And you should consider that, in the Peiraeus party, those who are in highest repute, who have run the greatest risk, and who have rendered you the most services, had often before exhorted your people to abide by their oaths and covenants, since they held this to be the bulwark of democracy: for they felt that it would give the party of the town immunity from the consequences of the past,[*](Those who had remained in Athens under the Thirty were for long held in suspicion by the restored democrats.) and the party of the Peiraeus an assurance of the most lasting permanence of the constitution.

For these are the men whom you would be far more justified in trusting than those who, as exiles, owed their deliverance to others and, now that they have returned, are taking up the slanderer’s trade. In my opinion, gentlemen of the jury, those among our people remaining in the city who shared my views have clearly proved, both under oligarchy and under democracy, what manner of citizens they are.

But the men who give us good cause to wonder what they would have done if they had been allowed to join the Thirty are the men who now, in a democracy, imitate those rulers; who have made a rapid advance from poverty to wealth, and who hold a number of offices without rendering an account of any; who instead of concord have created mutual suspicion, and who have declared war instead of peace; and who have caused us to be distrusted by the Greeks.

Authors of all these troubles and of many more besides, and differing no whit from the Thirty, —save that the latter pursued the same ends as theirs during an oligarchy, while these men follow their example in a democracy, —they yet make it their business to maltreat in this light fashion any person they may wish, as though everyone else were guilty, and they had proved themselves men of the highest virtue.

(Nay, it is not so much they who give cause for wonder as you, who suppose that there is a democracy, whereas things are done just as they please, and punishment falls, not on those who have injured your people, but on those who refuse to yield their own possessions.) And they would sooner have the city diminished than raised to greatness and freedom by others:

they consider that their perils in the Peiraeus give them licence now to do just as they please, while, if later on you obtain deliverance through others, they themselves will be swept away, and those others will be advanced in power. So they combine to obstruct any efforts that others may make for your benefit.

But their purpose is readily detected by any observer: for they are not anxious to hide themselves, but are rather ashamed not to be reputed villains; while you partly see the mischief for yourselves, and partly hear it from many other persons. As for us, gentlemen, we consider that you are bound by your duty towards all the citizens to abide by your covenants and your oaths:

nevertheless, when we see justice done upon the authors of your troubles, we remember your former experiences, and condone you; but when you show yourselves openly chastising the innocent along with the guilty, by the same vote you will be involving us all in suspicion.[*](The speaker seems to be accusing the democratic leaders of persecuting citizens who had shown oligarchic sympathies and who ought now to be protected by the oaths of concord that had been sworn by the two parties.) ---