Greek Texts & Translations

26.1nor 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: 26.2for 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. 26.3This 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 ^note 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. 26.4But 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 ^note in record of those services. 26.5As 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.

26.6And if they have recourse to the further argument that time does not allow of your electing another man, and that his failure to pass your scrutiny must inevitably leave the ancestral sacrifices unperformed, you should reflect that the time has already long gone by. For tomorrow is the last remaining day of the year, and on that day a sacrifice is offered to Zeus the Saviour, when it is impossible to complete a panel of jurymen in defiance of the laws. ^note 26.7If all these difficulties are the contrivance of this man, what are we to expect, when once he has passed the scrutiny, of the man who will have persuaded the outgoing magistrates to commit an illegality in his interest? Will he contrive just a few things of this sort in the course of a year? For my part, I think not. 26.8But you have to consider, not this question alone, but whether piety is better served by the sacrifices on behalf of the future magistrate being offered by the king-archon and his fellow-magistrates,—as has in fact been done in the past,—or by this man, whom those who know about him have testified to be not even without stained hands ^note; and whether you have sworn to install a magistrate who has not passed the scrutiny or, after holding the scrutiny, to crown the man who is worthy of the office? 26.9That is what you have to consider. Reflect also on the fact that the author of the law concerning scrutinies had chiefly in view the magistrates of the oligarchy; for he thought it monstrous that the men responsible for the overthrow of the democracy should regain office under that very constitution, and get control over the laws and over the city of which they had formerly taken charge only to maim her with such shameful and terrible injuries. Hence it is not right to be careless of the scrutiny, or to make it of so slight account as to ignore it: no, you should keep guard over it; for on the just title of each magistrate depends the safety of the government and of your whole people. 26.10Suppose that he were now under scrutiny for admission to the Council, and he had his name registered on the tablets as having served in the cavalry under the Thirty: even without an accuser you would reject him. And now, when he is found, not merely to have served in the cavalry and on the Council, but to have also committed offences against the people, will it not be strange behavior on your part not to show that you have the same feelings towards him? 26.11Besides, had he qualified for the Council, he would have held his seat as one in a body of five hundred, for a year only; so that, if in that period he had wished to commit an offence, he would have been easily prevented by the others. But, if he is approved for this office, he will hold it all by himself, and as a member of the Council of the Areopagus he will obtain control over the most important matters for an unlimited time. ^note 26.12It therefore behoves you to be stricter in your scrutiny for this office than for any other one. Else, what do you suppose will be the attitude of the great body of the citizens, when they become aware that the man who ought to have been punished for his offences has been approved by you for this high post; when they find a man judging murder cases who should have been tried himself by the Council of the Areopagus; and when, moreover, they see him crowned and established in control of heiresses and orphans, whose bereavement, in some cases, he has himself brought about? 26.13Do you not think they will show a resentful temper, and will hold you responsible for it all, when they put themselves back in those former times, in which many of them were hauled to prison and destroyed without trial by these men, or compelled to flee their own country; and when they further reflect that this same person, who has brought about the rejection of Leodamas, has caused this man to qualify, by acting as accuser of the former and undertaking the defence of the latter? And what is the attitude of Evandros towards the city? How many troubles has he brought upon her? 26.14Again, if you heed his words, what ill odor must you expect to incur! For, in the former case, they supposed it was anger that caused you to reject Leodamas; but if you approve this man, they will be convinced that you have given an unjust sentence on the other. These men are on their trial before you; but you are on yours before the whole city, which is watching even now to see what view you will take of her. 26.15Let none of you imagine that I am accusing Evandros to oblige Leodamas, because he is a friend of mine: no, it is only from my solicitude for you and for the city. This you may easily apprehend from the actual circumstances. For it is to Leodamas's interest that this man should be approved, since that would most surely discredit you, and give you the repute of placing oligarchs instead of democrats in the magistracy; but it is to your interest to reject this man, for you will get the credit of having acted justly also in rejecting the other. But if you do not reject this man, you will appear to have been unjust in the other case also.

26.16And yet, I am told, he will assert that this scrutiny affects, not merely him, but all those who remained in the city, and he will remind you of your oaths and covenants ^note in the hope that he will thus contrive to enlist the men who remained in the city to aid him in this scrutiny. But I desire, on behalf of the people, to give him this brief reply: the people do not take the same view of all those who remained in the city, but regard those who commit offences like his with the feelings that I say they ought, ^note while towards the rest they feel the opposite. 26.17The proof of this is that the latter have received no less honor from the city than those who marched on Phyle and got possession of the Peiraeus. And with good reason: for the character of these last is known to them only as shown under democracy, and they have not yet made trial of what it would be under oligarchy; whereas they have had sufficient test of those others under each kind of government to give grounds for confidence. ^note 26.18They consider that the arrests and executions were due to the defendant and his like, whereas the escapes were owing to the other citizens: in fact, if all had been of the same mind as they, neither exile nor restoration nor any other of the events that have occurred would have befallen the city. 26.19As to the further point which some find unaccountable,—how it was that their large numbers were worsted by the little band of the Peiraeus,—this can only be attributed to the prudent policy of those citizens; for they chose to concert a government with the restored exiles rather than an enslavement to the Lacedaemonians with the Thirty. 26.20It is therefore they, not these persons, whom the people have distinguished with the highest honors, appointing them to cavalry commands, generalships and embassies in their service; and they have never repented of it. Those who had committed numerous offences caused them to decree the institution of scrutinies; those who had done nothing of the sort, to make their covenants. So much for my reply to you on behalf of the people.

26.21It is your business, gentlemen of the Council, to inquire whether you will reach a better decision in the matter of this scrutiny by listening to me or to Thrasybulus, who will defend this man. Well, concerning myself or my father or my ancestors he will have nothing to allege that points to hatred of the people. For he cannot say that I took part in the oligarchy, as I underwent the scrutiny for manhood ^note at a later date than that; or that my father did either, since he died while holding command in Sicily, long before those seditions; 26.22or that my ancestors were subject to the despots, for they continually persisted in raising rebellion against them. Nor yet will he assert that we acquired our fortune in the war, and have spent nothing on the city: quite the contrary, our estate during the peace amounted to eighty talents, and the whole of it was spent in the war on the deliverance of the city. 26.23But on my part I shall be able to tell of this person ^note three things so grave in their enormity that each deed is worthy of death. First, for payment received, he raised a revolution in Boeotia, and deprived us of that alliance; second, he surrendered our ships ^note and confronted the city with the problem of its safety; 26.24and last, from the prisoners of war, whose loss he himself had caused, he extracted a bribe of thirty minae, by declaring that he would not obtain their release unless they supplied him with this sum from their own pockets. So now you are acquainted with the life of each of us: decide accordingly which of us two you ought to believe regarding the scrutiny of Evandros, and by so doing you will avoid mistake.