nor expecting that now, after this lapse of time, they will be strict in their scrutiny, since you are conscious of having committed many grievous offences against them; but these, you believe, some of them have forgotten, and will not even recall them to mind. Well, for my part I am quite indignant that he should come before you in the confidence of this hope, as though the persons whom he had wronged were different and distinct from those who are to give their verdict on these matters, and as though it were not the same people that have been his victims and are also to be his hearers. It is yourselves who are responsible for this: for you do not bear in mind that these men, when the city was subject to the Lacedaemonians, did not vouchsafe you a share even in the common slavery, but actually expelled you from the city; while you, after setting her free, made them partakers, not only in that freedom, but also in the judicature and in the public business of the Assembly. They have some reason, then, for thus convicting you of fatuity. This man is one of them, and he is not content to be allowed to share these rights, but claims as well, before paying the penalty for those actions, to hold office once more.
 I am informed that today he will make but a brief reply to the charges brought against him, skimming over the facts and shuffling off the accusation with his defence; and he will tell how he and his family have spent a great amount on the State, have performed public services with ardent zeal, and have won many brilliant victories In dramatic or athletic contests. under the democracy; that he himself is an orderly person, and is not seen acting as others of our people venture to act, but prefers to mind his own business. But I find no difficulty in countering those statements. As regards the public services, I say that his father would have done better not to perform them than to spend so much of his substance: for it was on account of this that he won the confidence of the people and overthrew the democracy; and so our memory of these deeds must be more abiding than of the offerings he has set up In the temples at Athens , Delphi , etc. in record of those services. As to his love of quiet, I say that we ought not to investigate his sobriety today, when there is no chance for him to be licentious: we should rather examine that period in which, being free to choose either way of life, he preferred to mark his citizenship by illegal acts. For the fact of his committing no offences now is due to those who have prevented him; but what he did then was owing to the man’s character and to those who vouchsafed him a free hand. So that if he claims to pass the scrutiny on this score, you should form this conception of the case, if you would not seem fatuous in his sight.