For Polystratus (31-35)

For indeed it was not for the sake of money that we might get that we sought your good; our purpose was that, if we found ourselves in trouble, we might be saved by this plea, and might obtain our due reward at your hands. And for the sake of other people also you ought to be so disposed, recognizing that, whenever zeal is shown in your service, your support will be not merely for us,—for even before making any request you have proved our attitude towards you,—but you will make the others more zealous by your bestowal of merited favor in every case of service rendered to you.

And avoid giving any kind of confirmation to those who repeat the most wicked of all sayings,—that ill-treated men have better memories than the well-treated. For who will keep a loyal heart, if those who harm you are to be preferred to those who help you? What you have to do, gentlemen, is this:

your decision is to be taken on us, and not on our estate. For so long as there was peace, we had a material fortune and our father was skillful in his farming; but after the invasion of the enemy, we were deprived of the whole of it. So this was the very reason why we were zealous in your service: we knew that we had no funds from which we could pay a fine, but that our personal zeal in your service entitles us to get some recompense.

And yet we find, gentlemen, that when someone puts forward his children with sobs and lamentations you take pity on the children for the disfranchisement that they will owe to him; and you overlook the fathers’ transgressions on account of the children, of whom you cannot yet tell whether they will grow up to be good citizens or bad. But of us you can tell that we have zealously worked in your service, and that our father is clear of any transgression. Thus you are far more justified in showing favor to those whose work you have tested than to those of whom you cannot tell how they will shape in the future.

And our position is the contrary of that of other people: for others seek your indulgence by producing their children; but we seek it by producing our father here and ourselves, begging you not to deprive us of the rights that we now enjoy, and so leave us, your fellow-citizens, without a city. Nay, pity both our father in his old age, and us. If you ruin us unjustly, what pleasure will there be for him in our society, or for us in company with each other, when we are unworthy both of you and of the city ? But all three of us beseech you to let us give yet greater proofs of our zeal.