Concerning the Team of Horses (26-30)

And during the forty years[*] of civic discord the Alcmeonidae were hated so much more bitterly than all other Athenians by the tyrants that whenever the tyrants had the upper hand they not only razed their dwellings, but even dug up their tombs[*]; and so completely were the Alcmeonidae trusted by their fellow-exiles that they continued during all that time to be leaders of the people. At last, Alcibiades and Cleisthenes[*]—the former my great-grandfather on my father’s side, the latter my father’s maternal great-grandfather—assuming the leadership of those in exile, restored the people to their country, and drove out the tyrants.

And they established that democratic form of government which so effectively trained the citizens in bravery that single-handed they conquered in battle[*] the barbarians who had attacked all Greece and they won so great renown for justice that the Greeks voluntarily put in their hands the dominion of the sea; and they made Athens so great in her power and her other resources that those who allege that she is the capital of Greece[*] and habitually apply to her similar exaggerated expressions appear to be speaking the truth.

Now this friendship with the people, which was, as I have shown, so ancient, genuine, and based upon services of the greatest importance, my father inherited from his ancestors. My father himself was left an orphan (for his father[*] died in battle at Coronea[*]) and became the ward of Pericles, whom all would acknowledge to have been the most moderate, the most just, and the wisest of the citizens. For I count this also among his blessings that, being of such origin, he was fostered, reared, and educated under the guardianship of a man of such character.

When he was admitted to citizenship, he showed himself not inferior to those whom I have mentioned, nor did he think it fitting that he should lead a life of ease, pluming himself upon the brave deeds of his ancestors; on the contrary, from the beginning he was so fired with ambition that he thought that even their great deeds should be held in remembrance through his own. And first of all, when Phormio[*] led a thousand of the flower of Athenian soldiers to Thrace,[*] my father served with this expedition, and so distinguished himself in the perilous actions of the campaign that he was crowned and received a full suit of armour from his general.

Really what is required of the man who is thought worthy of the highest praise? Should he not, when serving with the bravest of the citizens, be thought worthy of the prize of valor, and when leading an army against the best of the Greeks in all the battles show his superiority to them? My father, then, in his youth did win that prize of valor and in later life did achieve the latter.