Now, to show that he was one of the overseers, I will offer you witnesses; not the men who then acted with him,—for I could not do that,—but those who heard it from Eratosthenes himself:

yet truly, if they were sensible,i.e., the accomplices of Eratosthenes. they would be bearing witness against those persons, and would severely punish their instructors in transgression; instead of holding themselves bound by their oaths to the detriment of the citizens, if they were sensible they would make light of breaking those oaths for the advantage of the city. So much then, I would say in regard to them: now call my witnesses. Go up on the dais.

You have heard the witnesses. Finally, when he was established in power, he had a hand in no good work, but in much that was otherwise. Yet, if he was really a good man, it behoved him in the first place to decline unconstitutional powers, or else to lay information before the Council exposing the falsity of all the impeachments, and showing that Batrachus and Aeschylides, so far from giving true information, were producing as impeachments the fabrications of the Thirty, devised for the injury of the citizens.

Furthermore, gentlemen, anyone who was ill-disposed towards your people lost nothing by holding his peace: for there were other men to speak and do things of the utmost possible detriment to the city. As for the men who say they are well-disposed, how is it that they did not show it at the moment, by speaking themselves to the most salutary purpose and deterring those who were bent on mischief?

He could say, perhaps, that he was afraid, and to some of you this plea will be satisfactory. Then he must take care that he is not found to have opposed the Thirty in discussion: otherwise the fact will declare him an approver of their conduct who was, moreover, so influential that his opposition would bring him to no harm at their hands. He ought to have shown this zeal in the interest rather of your safety than of Theramenes, who has committed numerous offences against you.