If I were not conscious, gentlemen of the Council, that my accusers are seeking every possible means of injuring me, I should feel most grateful to them for this accusation; since I consider that the victims of unjust slander have the greatest service rendered to them by anyone who will compel them to undergo an examination of the record of their lives.

For I have so strong a confidence in myself that, if there is anyone who is inclined to dislike me, I hope that when he has heard me speak of my conduct in the past he will change his mind, and will think much better of me in the future.

Now, gentlemen, I make no claim to special merit, if I merely make plain to you that I am a supporter of the existing constitution and have been compelled to take my own share in your dangers: but if I am found to have lived, in all other respects, a regular life, quite contrary to the opinion and statements of my enemies, I request you to pass me through and to think the worse of these persons. I will begin by showing that I did not serve in the cavalry or reside here under the Thirty, and that I had no hand in the government of that time.

Our father, before the disaster at the Hellespont,At Aegospotami, 405 B.C. had sent us abroad to live at the court of Satyrus, on the Pontus.At Panticapaeum in the east corner of the Tauric Chersonese (Crimea), capital of the Kingdom of Bosphorus, which exported corn to Athens. We were not residing in Athens either when the walls were being demolished or when the constitution was being changed.In the spring of 404 B.C. We came here five days before the people at Phyle returned to the Peiraeus.In May, 403 B.C.

Surely it was not to be expected that, having arrived at such a moment, we should want to share in dangers that concerned others; while obviously the Thirty were in no mind to share the government with men who were residing abroad and were guilt of no crime: they were rather disfranchising even the men who had helped them to overthrow the democracy.