Such is the accusation against Eratosthenes and those friends of his, on whom he will fall back in his defence, as his abettors in these practices. Yet it is an unequal contest between the city and Eratosthenes: for whereas he was at once accuser and judge of the persons brought to trial, we to-day are parties engaged in accusation and defence.

And whereas these men put people to death untried who were guilty of no wrong, you think fit to try according to law the persons who destroyed the city, and whose punishment by you, even if unlawfully devised, would still be inadequate to the wrongs that they have committed against the city. For what would they have to suffer, if their punishment should be adequate to their actions?

If you put them and their children to death, should we sufficiently punish them for the murder of our fathers, sons and brothers whom they put to death untried? Or again, if you confiscated their material property, would this be compensation either to the city for all that they have taken from her, or to individuals for the houses that they pillaged?

Since therefore, whatever you might do, you could not exact from them an adequate penalty, would it not be shameful of you to disallow any possible sort of penalty that a man might desire to exact from these persons? But, I believe, he would have the audacity for anything, when he has come here today, before judges who are no other than the very persons who have been maltreated, to submit his defence to the actual witnesses of the man’s own villainy: so profound is either the contempt that he has conceived for you or the confidence that he has placed in others.

For both possibilities you ought to be on the watch, reflecting that, as they would have been unable to do what they did without the cooperation of others, so they would not now have ventured into court unless they expected to be saved by those same persons who have come here, not to support these men, but in the belief that there will be a general indemnity alike for their past actions and for whatever they may want to do in the future, if you let slip from your grasp the authors of our direst misery.