and while still a boy I was banished from the city by the Thirty. And when the men of the PiraeusThe 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 victoryFor 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.