Had the city been betrayed by them it would have been inhabited though enslaved, but left
 as this man left it, it would have been deserted. Moreover, after suffering hardships
 cities may well expect to see a change to better times, but with complete destruction even
 the hopes common to every city are taken from them. A man, if he but lives, has still a
 prospect of change from evil fortunes, but at his death there perishes with him every
 means by which prosperity could come. And so it is with cities; their misfortune reaches
 its limit when they are destroyed. Indeed, the plain fact is that for a city destruction is like death. Let us take the
 clearest illustration. Our city was enslaved By the
 Pisistratids from c. 560 to 510 and by the Thirty from 404 to 403. The walls were
 destroyed in 404. in earlier times by the tyrants and later by the Thirty, when
 the walls were demolished by the Spartans. Yet we were freed from both these evils and the
 Greeks approved us as the guardians of their welfare. Not so with any city which has ever been destroyed. First, though it is to quote a rather
 early case, remember Troy . Who has not heard
 how, after being the greatest city of her time and ruling the whole of Asia , she was deserted for ever when once the Greeks had
 razed her? Think of Messene too, established
 again as a city five hundred years after from men of indiscriminate origin. If by these words Lycurgus means five hundred years after it
 was destroyed, as he presumably does, he is being very inaccurate. Messene was founded in 369 by Epaminondas and its
 previous destruction is most naturally assigned to the Second Messenian War (mid-seventh
 century). Even the beginning of the First Messenian War, in which the Spartans conquered
 the country, cannot be placed much earlier than 720,i.e. only 350 years before. See
 Din. 1.73 and note. 
 Perhaps one of his advocates will dare to belittle the
 offence and say that none of these misfortunes could have resulted from the action of one
 man. They are not ashamed to make before you the kind of plea for which they deserve to
 die. For if they admit that he deserted his country, once they have granted this, let them
 leave it to you to determine the seriousness of the offence; and even if he has committed
 none of these crimes, surely it is madness to say that this one man could cause no harm.
 Personally, gentlemen, I think the opposite is true: the safety of the city rested with
 this man. For the city’s life continues only if each one guards her by personally doing
 his duty and if a man neglects his duty in a single aspect, he has, unwittingly, neglected
 it entirely. But it is easy, gentlemen, to ascertain the truth by referring to the
 attitude of the early lawgivers.