The Law of the Spartans See what an admirable law this is, gentlemen, and how
 expedient it would be for other peoples too besides the Spartans. The fear of one’s own
 community is a strong thing and will compel men to face danger against an enemy; no one
 will forsake his country in times of peril when he sees that a traitor is punished with
 death. No one will turn coward when his city needs him, if he knows that the punishment in
 store for him is this. For death is the one fitting penalty for cowardice; since, when men
 know that there are two alternative dangers of which they must face one, they will choose
 to meet the enemy far rather than stand out against the law and their fellow citizens.
 Leocrates is much more deserving of death than deserters
 from the army. They return to the city ready to defend it or to meet disaster in company
 with their fellow citizens, while he fled from his country and provided for his own
 safety, not daring to protect his hearth and home. He alone of men has betrayed even the
 natural ties of kinship and blood which the unthinking beasts themselves hold dearest and
 most sacred. Birds at least, which by nature are best fitted for a swift escape, can be seen accepting
 death in defence of their brood. Hence the words of the old poets: Nor does the wild fowl let another’s brood Be laid
 within the nest that she has built. unknown But the cowardice of Leocrates has so passed all bounds that he left his country to
 the enemy. That is why no city let him reside within it as an alien. He was naturally expelled more
 quickly than a murderer. Exiles for murder who move into another city do not meet with
 enmity among their hosts; but what city could admit Leocrates? One who refused to help his
 own country would indeed be likely to face danger for another’s! Such men are bad, whether
 as citizens, guests, or personal friends; for they will enjoy the advantages offered by
 the state but will not consent to assist it too, in times of difficulty. Consider: he is hated and expelled by those without a reason to resent him; what
 treatment should he get from you who have had the utmost provocation? Should it not be the
 extreme penalty? Indeed, gentlemen, if there were any punishment worse than death,
 Leocrates of all the traitors that have ever been would most deserve to undergo it. For
 other traitors are punished, though, when they are caught, their crime has yet to be
 committed. The defendant, alone of all men, by deserting the city, has, at the time of his
 trial, accomplished what he undertook to do.