and while still a boy I was banished from the city by the Thirty. And when the men of the
 Piraeus The democratic party, led by Thrasybulus, in
 403 B.C. had taken Piraeus and made it their
 headquarters. were restored, and all the rest recovered their possessions, I
 alone by the influence of my personal enemies was deprived of the of the land which the
 people gave us as compensation for the confiscated property. After Alcibiades’ condemnation as participant in the violation of the
 Eleusinian Mysteries. Large portions of the list of these confiscated goods are
 preserved in inscriptions. And after having already suffered so many misfortunes
 and having twice lost my property, 414
 B.C. and 404 B.C. I am now the defendant in an
 action involving five talents. The talent was not a coin,
 but a sum of money roughly equivalent (although it would purchase much more) to $1000
 (over 200). And although the complaint involves money, the real issue is my right
 to continue to enjoy citizenship. For although the same penalties are prescribed for all by our laws, yet the legal risk is
 not the same for all; on the contrary, the wealthy risk a fine, but those who are in
 straitened circumstances, as is the case with me, are in danger of disfranchisement, and
 this is a misfortune greater, in my opinion, than exile; for it is a far more wretched
 fate to live among one’s fellow-citizens deprived of civic rights than to dwell an alien
 among foreigners. I entreat you, therefore, to aid me and not to suffer me to be despitefully treated by my
 personal enemies, or to be deprived of my fatherland, or to be made notorious by such
 misfortunes. The facts in the case would of themselves justly win for me your pity, even
 if I have not the power by my words to evoke it, since pity truly should be felt for those
 who are unjustly brought to trial, who are fighting for the greatest stakes, whose present
 condition is not in accordance with their own worth or with that of their ancestors,
 seeing that they have been deprived of immense wealth and have experienced life’s greatest
 vicissitudes. Although I have many reasons for lamenting my fate, I am especially indignant for these
 reasons: first, if I must be punished by this man, who should justly be punished by me;
 second, if I shall lose my civic rights by reason of my father’s victory at Olympia, when
 I see other men richly rewarded for such a victory For the
 rewards of victory at Olympia cf. Plat. Apol.
 36d-e . ; and, in addition, if Teisias, a man who never did the city any good, is to remain
 powerful in the democracy just as he was in the oligarchy, whereas I, who injured neither
 party, am to be ill-treated by both; and finally, if, while in all other matters your
 actions are to be the opposite of those of the Thirty, you shall in regard to me show the
 same spirit as they, and if I, who then lost my fatherland in company with you, shall now
 be deprived of it by you.