Before the revolt of MytileneMytilene had revolted from Athens some ten years previously, in 428. my father gave visible proof of his devotion to your interests. When, however, the city as a whole was so ill-advised as to commit the blunder of revolting,Although the τῆς ὑμετέρας γνώμης of the Mss., if retained and taken with ἥμαρτε, would give the sense failed in what you expected of them, an expression for which there are parallels, συνεξαμαρτεῖν REQUIRES ἥμαρτε alone to balance it, and the repetition of γνώμη lines later is harsh in the extreme. he was forced to join the city as a whole in that blunder. Not but what even then his feelings towards you remained unchanged: although he could no longer display his devotion in the old way. It was not easy for him to leave the city, as the ties which bound him, his children, and his property, were strong ones; nor yet could he set it at defiance as long as he remained there.

But from the moment that you punished the authors of the revolt—of whom my father was not found to be one—and granted the other citizens of Mytilene an amnesty which allowed them to continue living on their own land,See Thuc. 3.50. The walls of Mytilene were rased, her fleet taken from her, and the entire island, except for Methymna, divided among Athenian cleruchs. These drew a fixed rent from the inhabitants, who continued to work the land. he has not been guilty of a single fault, of a single lapse from duty. He has failed neither the city of Athens nor that of Mytilene, when a public service was demanded of him; he regularly furnishes choruses, and always pays the imposts.The choruses mentioned were of course local, and performed at the Mytilenean festivals. The services to Athens amount to nothing more than the payment of τέλη(?harbor-dues). Professor Wade-Gery suggests to me that the εἰκοστή may be meant, a 5 per cent impost which replaced the tribute early in 413 (Thuc. 7.28). If so, the date of the speech must fall between the spring of 413 and the autumn, when news of the Sicilian disaster arrived.

If Aenus is his favorite place of resort, that fact does not mean that he is evading any of his obligations towards Athens,Or possibly Mytilene. or that he has become the citizen of another city, like those others, some of whom I see crossing to the mainland and settling among your enemies, while the rest actually litigate with you under treaty;The text of the manuscript is clearly unsound here. (1) The μὲν in the fourth line of Antiph. 5.78 has no answering δὲ. (2) The sense of the passage as it stands is in any case unsatisfactory. σύμβολα (l. 6)were special treaties regulating the settlement of private disputes, generally commercial in character, between the citizens of different states. Fragments of two such treaties have survived : Athens-Phaseils (I.G.i2 16 ff.) and Athens-Mytilene (I.G. i2 60 ff.); and in the first of these there is a reference to a third, Athens-Chios. It is quite certain, however, that agreements of this sort did not extend to enemy states, as the passage would suggest if the manuscript reading be accepted. Various corrections have been proposed. A. Fraenkel and Wilamowitz suppose a considerable lacuna which contained the words τοὺς δ’ ἐς πόλιν συμμαχίδα διοκιζομένους, or the like. The objection to such a solution is that καὶ δίκας ἀπὸ συμβόλων ὑμῖν δικαζομένους in l. 6 becomes otiose, as it is known that σύμβολα already existed between Athens and Mytilene. Better is Reiskes’s τοὺς δὲ. We then have a contrast between Euxitheus’ father, who is a loyal citizen of Mytilene under Athenian rule, and other Mytileneans who, since the revolt of Lesbos ten years previously, have either (a) shown their hostility to Athens passively by settling on the Asiatic coast in towns under Persian control or (b) shown it actively by remaining in Lesbos and initiating an unending series of lawsuits against the Athenian cleruchs who have become their landlords. nor does it mean that he desires to be beyond the reach of the Athenian courts. It means that he shares your own hatred of those who thrive on prosecution.

The act which my father joined his whole city in committing, which he committed not from choice but under compulsion, affords no just ground for punishing him individually. The mistake then made will live in the memory of every citizen of Mytilene. They exchanged great prosperity for great misery, and saw their country pass into the possession of others. Nor again must you be influenced by the distorted account of my father’s conduct as an individual with which you have been presented. Nothing but money is at the bottom of this elaborate attack upon him and myself; and unfortunately there are many circumstances which favor those who seek to lay hands on the goods of others; my father is too old to help me: and I am far too young to be able to avenge myself as I should.

You must help me: you must refuse to reach those who make a trade of prosecution to become more powerful than yourselves. If they achieve their purpose when they appear before you, it will be a lesson to their victims to compromise with them and avoid open court; but if by appearing before you they succeed only in gaining an evil reputation for themselves, you will enjoy the honor and the power which it is right that you should. So give me and give justice your support.