Concerning the Team of Horses (11-15)

And sometimes they pretend to despise him,[*] saying that in no respect did he excel his contemporaries; yet at the present time they blame him for all that has happened and say that the Lacedaemonians have learned from him the art of war—they who can teach the rest of the world this accomplishment! As for me, if I had sufficient time, I could easily prove that some of those things he did justly, but that others are unjustly imputed to him. Yet the most shocking thing that could happen would be this—if, while after his exile my father was recompensed, I, because he was exiled, should be penalized.

I think, however, that in justice he should obtain from you a full pardon; for you, when banished by the Thirty Tyrants,[*] experienced the same misfortunes as he. Wherefore you should reflect how each of you was affected, what thoughts you each had, and what peril each would not have undergone so as to bring his own banishment to an end and to return to his native land, and to be avenged on those who banished him.

To what city, or friend, or stranger did you not apply, to entreat them to help you to get back to your country? From what effort did you abstain in your endeavors to be restored? Did you not seize the Piraeus and destroy the crops in the fields and harry the land and set fire to the suburbs and finally assault the walls?

And so vehemently did you believe that these actions were justifiable that you were more indignant with those of your fellow-exiles who were inactive than with those who had been the authors of your misfortunes. It is not fair, therefore, to censure those who wanted the same things which you desired, nor yet to regard all those men as base who, when they were exiles, sought to return, but much more should you condemn those oligarchs who, remaining in Athens, did deeds which deserved the penalty of exile; nor is it fair that you, in judging what sort of citizen my father was, should begin at the time when he had no art in the city’s affairs;

on the contrary, you should look to that earlier time and observe how he served the people before his exile, and call to mind that with two hundred heavy-armed soldiers he caused the most powerful cities in the Peloponnesus to revolt from the Lacedaemonians,[*] and brought them into alliance with you, and in what perils he involved the Lacedaemonians themselves, and how he behaved as general in Sicily. For these services he is deserving of your gratitude; but for that which happened when he was in misfortune it is those who banished him whom you would justly hold responsible.