23. And I especially wonder, gentlemen of the jury, if any of you shall claim that Alcibiades be acquitted through his friend and not be condemned for his own baseness. It is right that you should hear of this (conduct), that you may know that you would not do right to acquit him on the plea that he has merely committed this wrong, but in other respects has been an exemplary citizen. For from other deeds of his you would justly condemn him to death. 24. It is for your interest to know about these things, for when you allow defendants to speak of their own good deeds, and the noble actions of their ancestors, you ought also to listen to the accusers, if they prove that the defendants have committed many crimes against you, and their ancestors did much harm. 25. For this man, when a youth, at the house of Archedemus the blear-eyed, who had stolen much of your money, while many eyes were upon him, drank, lying at full length under the same rug, and caroused at midday, having a mistress while a mere boy, imitating his ancestors, and thinking he could not be an illustrious man, unless he were a wild youth. 26. He was summoned by Alcibiades when his conduct became notorious. And what sort of a fellow should you think him, when he shocked that man who used to teach others such practices! Having conspired with Theotimus against his father, he betrayed Oreus to him. And Theotimus, taking the fortified place, first maltreated the youth and finally bound him and exacted a ransom for him. 27. And his father hated him so that he used to say he would not even care for his body if he died. And when his father died, Archebiades, a favorite of his, ransomed him. Not long after, having gambled away his property, setting sail from Leuke Akte he tried to drown his friends. 28. It would be a long story, gentlemen of the jury, to tell all his crimes against the state, his relatives, friends and others; but Hipponicus, having called many to witness, divorced his own wife, declaring that Alcibiades entered her house not as brother but as husband. 29. And though he has committed such crimes and done such horrible things, he neither repents of what he has done nor cares for what he will do, but he who should be a most illustrious citizen, making his life a shield for his father's misdeeds, tries to bring insult upon others, as if being able to transfer to others the smallest share of the disgraces which belong to himself, (30) and that too being a son of that Alcibiades who persuaded the Spartans to fortify Decelea, and sailed off to the islands, and incited many in the city to crime, and oftener fought against his country with its enemies than with his fellow-citizens against them. For all this, it is for the interest of yourselves and posterity to punish any one you find of this family. 31. He has been accustomed to say it was not right for his father to return from exile and be favored by the state, and (yet) that he should suffer unjustly in reputation on account of his father's exile. But it seems wrong, if you take away his privileges on the ground that you gave (them) without just reason, and when this one commits a wrong acquit him on the ground that his father was an ornament to the state. 32. And there are many other reasons, gentlemen of the jury, for you to condemn him, and for this reason especially, that he quotes as a precedent in support of his own baseness your acts of valor. For he dares say that Alcibiades did nothing so terrible in leading war against his country. 33. For while you were in exile you took Phyle and cut the trees and 'made assaults upon the walls, and though so doing left no reproach for your descendants, but gained honor from all men, as if those were on a par who in exile joined with the enemy against the country, and those who established themselves when the Spartans were in possession of the city. 34. I believe it is clear to all that these fellows sought to establish themselves; but you returned and expelled the enemy and freed even those citizens who wished to be slaves. So he uses like words about the two parties while the facts were not at all similar. 35. And yet, with such great misfortune coming upon him, he glories in his father's baseness, and said that he had great power, to bring evil upon the state. But who is so ignorant of his country as not to be able, if he wishes to be a traitor, to tell the enemy what fortified places to seize, to show what forts are ill-guarded, to teach them his country's weak points, and to declare which allies are ready to revolt? 36. Surely it was not through his power in exile he was able to work evil to the state when he returned deceiving you, and took command of many triremes, but was able neither to dislodge the enemy from the country nor make the Chians friendly again whom he had caused to revolt, nor do a particle of good to you. 37. So it is not difficult to realize that Alcibiades did not differ from other men in power, but was first of the citizens in villainy. Whatever he knew to be your weak points, he informed the Spartans, and when he had to act as general, he could do them no harm, but promising that the king would furnish money at his request, he took more than two hundred talents from the city. 38. And so he realized that he had done you much harm, and though being able to speak, and while he had friends, and having acquired the money, he never dared return and render his accounts, but exiling himself preferred to be a citizen of Thrace or of any other city rather than his own. And finally, gentlemen of the jury, to cap all his former baseness, he dared with Adeimantus to betray the ships to Lysander. 39. So if any one of you pities those who perished in the naval battle, or feels disgrace on account of those enslaved by the enemy, or is angry at the demolishment of the walls, or hates the Spartans, or is angry at the Thirty, he should consider that this man's father was the cause of all this, and remember that Alcibiades, his great-grandfather, and his great-great-grandfather on his mother's side were ostracized twice by your ancestors, and that the older men among you condemned his father to death; so you must consider him as an hereditary enemy of the state and as such condemn him, and care less for pitying and pardoning him than for the existing laws and the oaths which you have sworn. 41. But you must consider, gentlemen of the jury, on what ground you should spare such men. Is it on the ground that in relation to the state they have been unfortunate, but otherwise have lived with moderation and in an orderly fashion? Have they not been unchaste, and lived with their sisters, and some have had children by their daughters, (42) others have performed the mysteries, mutilated the Hermae, been impious before the gods, wronged the state, have lived without regard to justice or law in relation to others or to their fellow-citizens, have refrained from no deed of daring, nor left untried any crime? They have experienced and done everything. For such is their disposition as to be ashamed of good deeds, and to glory in crime. 43. Now it is true, gentlemen of the jury, that before now you have acquitted some, although knowing they were in the wrong, believing that in the future they would be useful to you. But what hope is there that the state will be benefited by this fellow, whom you will know to be worthless as soon as he begins his defense, and understand to be a coward from the rest of his disposition. 44. If he were banished, he could not work you any evil, being a coward and poor and unable to effect anything, at variance with his kinsmen and hated by other men. So for this reason he should not be cared for, (45) but much rather should he furnish an example to other men, especially to his associates, who are not willing to obey commands and desire such a course of action as his, and while mismanaging their own affairs attempt to dictate about yours.
46. I have made my accusation as best I could, and I know that there are some of my audience who wonder how I was able to ferret out so accurately their misdeeds, while the defendant is laughing to himself because I have mentioned (only) the smallest part of their sins. 47. So taking into account what has been omitted as well as what has been said, condemn him by your votes, remembering that he is liable to the charge, and that the state would gain much if relieved of such citizens. Read now to them the laws and the oaths and the writ, and with these in mind they will vote justly.
ORATION XVI.
MANTITHEUS.
1. If I did not know, members of the Boule, that my accusers wished to injure me in every way, I should have felt grateful to them for bringing this charge. For I think to men slandered unjustly these charges are of great benefit, as they compel them to exhibit their mode of life. 2. I feel so sure of myself that I hope, if any one here entertains feelings of dislike toward me, he will, having heard what I have to say of the facts, think better of it and be in all after-time a good friend to me. 3. I make no claim, members of the Boule, to do anything more than show you that I am well disposed to the existing constitution and that I shared the same dangers that you did. If I make plain to you that I have lived well, contrary to common report and the assertions of my enemies, I want you to pass me and count them bad. First, I will show that I did not serve in the cavalry, that I was not in Athens at the time of the Thirty, and that I took no part in the government of that time.
4. My father sent me before the disaster on the Hellespont, to live at the court of Salyrus, king of Bosphorus, and I was not at home, either while the walls were being taken down, or the constitution was undergoing change, but returned five days before the party of Phyle occupied the Piraeus. 5. It is not likely that, arriving at such a time, I was desirous of sharing other people's dangers, and they evidently did not have any idea of sharing the management of the government with those who were away from home and not guilty of disloyalty, but rather disenfranchised even those who helped them to abolish the democracy. 6. And in the next place it is foolish to estimate the cavalry from the register. For there are many persons on this list who admit that they did mot serve in the cavalry, and some are written there who were away from home. Here is the strongest proof. For when you returned you voted that the phylarchs should give in a return of those serving in the cavalry that you might recover the allowances. 7. No one can show that my name was handed in by phylarchs, nor given to the revenue commissioners as having received an allowance. So it is plain to all that it was necessary for the phylarchs, if they did not give in the names of those having received the allowance, to be losers themselves. So you ought to put much more trust in the returns of these men than you do in the register. 8. Yet, members of the Boule, if I had served in the cavalry, I should not have denied it as if I had been guilty of a terrible crime, but should claim, if I proved I had done no one of the citizens any wrong, that I ought to be passed. I see that, following this plan, many who served in the cavalry at that time are in the Boule, and many have been appointed generals, and many commanders of cavalry. Believe, then, that I make this defense for no other reason than that they have dared lie about me before the whole world. Come and give evidence.
EVIDENCE.
9. I do not know that I need say anything further about the charges. I believe in cases of another sort it is only necessary to make a defense by refuting accusations, but in trials concerning examination, to offer to give an account of one's entire life. I wish you to listen to me fairly. I will make the account as short as I can.
10. In the first place, though I was left little money by my father, both on account of his misfortunes and the calamity that befell the city, yet I married off my two sisters, giving them thirty minae as a dowry; and I so divided the property between myself and my brother that he admits that he had more than his share. And in all other relations of my life I have so behaved that no one ever brought an indictment against me. 11. I think the greatest proof of the blamelessness of my public life is that all the young men who habitually spend their time with dice, or in drink, or excesses of this sort, are my enemies; and it is just they who get up and circulate such stories about me. If I and they had the same tastes, it is plain that they would have had no such opinion of me. 12. No one can prove that I have had a private suit, a public suit, or was ever impeached before the Boule. But you see other men often engaged in such cases. Last of all, see how well I served the state in the army and in the expeditions against the enemy. 13. For first, when you made the alliance against the Boeotians, and it was necessary to send assistance to Haliartus, I was put in the list of the cavalry by Orthoboulus; but seeing that all thought the cavalry was safe, but that there was danger to the hoplites, while others not qualified by law were trying to get enrolled on the cavalry, I reported myself to Orthoboulus to be struck off the list, thinking it disgraceful to be in security myself while others were in danger. Come and testify for me, Orthoboulus.