Against Lochites (11-15)

Lochites is one of these persons. For even though he was too young to have belonged to the oligarchy established at that time, yet his character at any rate is in harmony with their regime. For it was men of like disposition who betrayed our power to the enemy, razed the walls of the fatherland, and put to death without a trial fifteen hundred citizens.[*]

We may reasonably expect that you, remembering the past, will punish, not only those who then did us harm, but also those who wish now to bring our city into the same condition as then; and you should punish potential criminals with greater severity than the malefactors of the past in so far as it is better to find how to avert future evils than to exact the penalty for past misdeeds.

Do not wait for the time when these enemies shall unite, seize an opportune moment, and bring ruin upon the whole city, but whenever on any pretext they are delivered into your hands, punish them, thinking it a stroke of luck when you catch a man who in petty derelictions reveals his complete depravity.

It would indeed have been best, if only some distinguishing mark were borne by men of base nature,[*] that we might punish them before any fellow-citizen has been injured by them. But since it is impossible to perceive who such men are before a victim has suffered at their hands, at any rate as soon as their character is recognized, it is the duty of all men to hate them and to regard them as enemies of all mankind.

Remember, too, that while the poor have no share in the danger of loss of property, yet fear of injury to our persons is common to all alike; in consequence, whenever you punish thieves and cheats you benefit only the rich, but whenever you chastise those who commit mayhem, you give aid to yourselves.