Concerning the Team of Horses (36-40)

As regards his behavior as a citizen—for neither should this be passed over in silence—just as he on his part did not neglect his civic duties, but on the contrary, to so great a degree had proved himself a more loyal friend of the people than those who had gained the highest repute, that while, as you will find, the others stirred up sedition for selfish advantage, he was incurring danger on your behalf. For his devotion to the democracy was not that of one who was excluded from the oligarchy, but of one who was invited to join it: indeed, time and again when it was in his power as one of a small group, not only to rule the rest, but even to dominate them, he refused, choosing rather to suffer the city’s unjust penalties rather than to be traitor to our form of government.

Of the truth of these statements no one would have convinced you as long as you still continued to be governed as a democracy; but as it was, the civil conflicts which arose clearly showed who were the democrats and who the oligarchs, as well as those who desired neither rgime, and those who laid claim to a share in both. In these uprisings your enemies twice exiled my father: on the first occasion, no sooner had they got him out of the way than they abolished the democracy; on the second, hardly had they reduced you to servitude than they condemned him to exile before any other citizen;

so exactly did my father’s misfortunes affect the city and he share in her disasters. And yet many of the citizens were ill disposed toward him in the belief that he was plotting a tyranny; they held this opinion, not on the basis of his deeds, but in the thought that all men aspire to this power and that he would have the best chance of attaining it. Wherefore you would justly feel the greater gratitude to him because, while he alone of the citizens was powerful enough to have this charge[*] brought against him, he was of opinion that as regards political power he should be on an equality with his fellow-citizens.

Because of the multitude of things that might be said on my father’s behalf I am at a loss which of them it is appropriate to mention on the present occasion and which should be omitted. For always the plea that has not yet been spoken seems to me of greater importance than the arguments which have already been presented to you. And I believe that it is obvious to everyone that he must needs be most devoted to the welfare of the city who has the greatest share in her evil fortunes as well as in her good.

Well then, when Athens was prosperous, who of the citizens was more prosperous, more admired, or more envied than my father? And when she suffered ill-fortune, who was deprived of brighter hopes, or of greater wealth, or of fairer repute? Finally, when the Thirty Tyrants established their rule, while the others merely suffered exile from Athens, was he not banished from all Greece? Did not the Lacedaemonians and Lysander[*] exert themselves as much to cause his death as to bring about the downfall of your dominion, in the belief that they could not be sure of the city’s loyalty if they demolished her walls[*] unless they should also destroy the man who could rebuild them?