Against Ergocles (1-5)

Now tell me, how can you forgive these persons, when you see the fleet that they commanded breaking up for want of money and dwindling in numbers,[*] while these men, who were poor and needy on sailing out, have so quickly acquired the largest fortune in the city? It is your duty, therefore, men of Athens, to show indignation at such conduct.

And indeed it would be strange if now, when you are yourselves thus oppressed by the special levies, you should forgive men who embezzle and take bribes; and yet heretofore, when your estates were ample and the public revenue was ample too, those who coveted your property you punished with death.

I think you will all agree that, if Thrasybulus had proposed to you that he should sail out with warships which he was to deliver up worn out instead of new; that the dangers were to be yours, while the benefits would accrue to his own friends; and that he would reduce you to worse poverty owing to the levies, but would make Ergocles and his other adulators the wealthiest men in the city,—not one of you would have given the man permission to sail out with your ships.

And to make matters worse, as soon as you had decreed that an inventory be made of the sums obtained from the cities, and that his fellow-commanders should sail home to undergo their audit, Ergocles said that there you were at your slander-mongering and hankering after the ancient laws,[*] and he advised Thrasybulus to occupy Byzantium, keep the ships, and marry Seuthes’[*] daughter: