Against Philon, On his Scrutiny

I did not suppose, gentlemen of the Council, that Philon would ever carry audacity to the point of consenting to appear before you in order to pass a scrutiny. But since he is audacious, not in one instance only, but in many, and I have taken oath before entering the Council-chamber

that my counsel would be for the best advantage of the State, and as the terms of that oath require us to expose any person appointed by lot whom we know to be unsuitable for service on the Council, I shall deliver the accusation against this man Philon: I am not, however, pursuing any private feud, nor am I prompted by my ability or practice in speaking before you, but I merely rely on the multitude of his offences, and feel bound to abide by the oaths that I have sworn.

Now you will recognize that the contest will be an unequal one: my resources will not be so ample for showing up his character as his were for contriving his villainies. Nevertheless, if I should not altogether discharge my part in speaking to the accusation, it would not be right that he should benefit by that, but rather that he should be rejected on the score of any points that I can demonstrate to your satisfaction.

For my speech will be found defective only on account of my imperfect acquaintance with the whole of his actions, but adequate on account of the vileness of all his ways. And I also call upon those among you who may have more ability in speaking than I to amplify my exposure of his offences, and to make use of any points that I omit for accusing Philon, in your turn, of offences known to you. For it is not from my sole statement that you ought to form your views of his character.

What I say is that only those have the right to sit in Council on our concerns who, besides holding the citizenship, have their hearts set upon it. For to them it makes a great difference whether this city is prosperous or unsuccessful, because they consider themselves obliged to bear their share in her calamities as they also share in her advantages.

But those who, though citizens by birth, adopt the view that any country in which they have their business is their fatherland, are evidently men who would even abandon the public interest of their city to seek their private gain, because they regard their fortune, not the city, as their fatherland.

Now I will demonstrate that Philon here has set his private safety above the public danger of the city, and has held it preferable to pass his life without danger to himself rather than save the city by sharing her dangers with the rest of the citizens.

For this man, gentlemen of the Council, in the midst of the city’s disaster (which I only touch upon so far as I am forced to do so), was banned from the town by the Thirty along with the main body of the citizens, and for a while he lived in the country: but when the party of Phyle returned to the Peiraeus, and the people, not only from the country, but from over the border, assembled together, partly in the town and partly in the Peiraeus, and when each to the extent of his powers came to the rescue of his fatherland, Philon’s conduct was the opposite of that shown by the rest of the citizens.

For he packed up all his belongings and left the city to live beyond the border, at Oropus, where he paid the aliens’ tax and resided under the protection of a patron, since he preferred the life of an alien among those people to citizenship with us. And so he would not even do as some citizens did, who turned about when they saw the party of Phyle succeeding in their efforts; he did not even think fit to take any share in these successes, but chose to come when the business was achieved rather than join in the return after achieving something for the advantage of the common wealth. For he did not come to the Peiraeus, nor is there any instance of his having placed himself at your disposal.

But I ask you, if on seeing us successful he did not shrink from betraying us, what must he have done to us, had we failed of our object? Now those who were prevented by private calamities from sharing the dangers that then beset the city deserve some indulgence: for misfortune befalls no man of his own will.

But those who acted thus by design merit no indulgence, since their conduct was due not to mishap, but to policy. It is a custom accepted as just among all mankind that in face of the same crimes we should be most incensed with those men who are most able to avoid criminal action, but should be indulgent to the poor or disabled because we regard their offences as involuntary.

This man, therefore, deserves no indulgence; for neither was he disabled and thus unfit for hardship, as you see for yourselves, nor did he lack means for the public services, as I shall establish. If, then, he was as backward as he was able to help, how should he not hated with good reason by you all?

Nor indeed will you incur the enmity of any of the citizens if you reject him; for it is by no means one party, but both, that he has manifestly betrayed, so that he can claim friendship neither with those who were in the town (for he did not think fit to stand by them in their peril), nor with those who occupied the Peiraeus, since he did not consent to return even with them; and that, too, when he was, as he asserts, a townsman

But if there yet remains a party of the citizens that had a share in his proceedings, if ever—may Heaven forfend it!—they get the city into their hands, let him claim his seat on the Council with them. Well, that he lived at Oropus under the protection of a patron, that he possessed ample means, and yet stood to arms neither in the Peiraeus nor in the town, are my first contentions: to make sure of their truth, hear the witnesses.

WitnessesSo now it remains for him to state that owing to some infirmity that befell him he was incapacitated from assisting the party in the Peiraeus, but that he offered to spend his own resources either in contributing to the people’s funds or in arming some of his fellow-townsmen as infantry, after the example of many other citizens who were unable to give their loyal services in person.

Now, to preclude him from deceiving you with lies, I will give you clear information at once on these points also, since I shall not be at liberty afterwards to come forward in this place and expose him. Please call Diotimus of Acharnae[*](The principal township of Attica, 7 miles north of Athens.) and those who were appointed with him to arm the townsmen as infantry from the funds then contributed.

Testimony of Diotimus and those Appointed With HimSo this man had no intention of aiding the city in such a moment, in such a position of her affairs; his purpose was to make a profit out of your disasters. For he set out from Oropus, going sometimes alone and sometimes at the head of others who took your misfortunes as so much good fortune, and so traversed the countryside:

where he met with the most elderly citizens who had stayed behind in their townships with scanty supplies that barely sufficed them,—men who were attached to the democracy, but unable owing to their age to give it their support,—he stripped them of their resources, thinking it more important to make his own petty gains than to spare them injury. It is not possible for all these to prosecute him today, from the very same cause that disabled them from supporting the city:

yet this man ought not to benefit twice from their disability, and be helped thereby to pass your present scrutiny as he was before to rob them of what they had. Nay, if but a single one of those whom he has wronged appears in court, make much of it, and utterly detest this man, who could bring himself to strip of their resources those on whom other men, out of pity for their straits, freely bestowed something from their own. Pray call the witnesses.

WitnessesWell now, I do not see how your judgement of him should differ from that of his own people; for the facts are of such a nature that, even if he had committed no other offence, they would alone justify his rejection. The strange things of which his mother accused him while she was alive I will pass over; but on the evidence of the measures that she took at the close of her life you can easily judge how he treated her.