No More Learning

Of what tales are you speaking ? he said.
That may be very true, he replied; but I do not as yet know what you would term the greater.
Those, I said, which are narrated by Homer and Hesiod, and the rest of the poets, who have ever been the great story tellers of mankind.
But which stories do you mean, he said ; and what fault do you find with them?
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A fault which is most serious, I said ; the fault of telling a lie, and, which is more, a bad lie.
But when is this fault committed ?
Whenever an erroneous representation is made of the nature of gods and heroes, — like the drawing of a limner which has not the shadow of a likeness to the truth.
First of all, I said, there was that greatest of all lies in high places, which the poet told about Uranus, and which was a bad lie too, — I mean what Hesiod says that Uranus did and what Cronus did to him. The doings of Cronus, and the sufferings which in turn his son inflicted upon him, even if they were true, ought certainly not to be lightly told to young and sim ple persons ; if possible, they had better be buried in silence. But if there is an absolute necesssity for their mention, a chosen few might hear them in a mystery, and in order to reduce the number of hearers they should sacrifice not a common (Eleu- sinian) pig, but some huge and unprocurable victim.
Why, yes, said he, those stories are certainly objectionable.
Yes, he said, that sort of thing is certainly very blamable ; but what are the stories which you mean ?
Yes, Adeimantus, they are stories not to be narrated in our State ; the young man should not be told that in committing the worst of crimes he is far from doing anything outrageous ; and that if he chastises his father when he does wrong, in any manner he likes, he will only be following the example of the first and greatest among the gods.
I quite agree with you, he said ; in my opinion those stories are not fit to be repeated.
Neither, if we mean our future guardians to regard the habit of quarreling as dishonorable, should anything be said of the wars in heaven and of the plots and fightings of the gods against one another, which are quite untrue. Far be it from us to tell them of the battles of the giants, and embroider them on garments ; or of all the innumerable other quarrels of gods and heroes with their friends and relations. If they would only believe us we would tell them quarreling is unholy, and that never up to this time has there been any quarrel between citizens ; this is what old men and old women should begin by telling children, and the same when they grow up. And the poets should be required to compose accordingly. But the narrative of Hephaestus binding Here his mother, or how on another occasion Zeus sent him flying for taking her part when
132 EDUCATING A CITIZEN.
she was being beaten, — such tales must not be admitted into our State, whether they are supposed to have an allegorical meaning or not. For the young man cannot judge what is allegorical and what is literal ; anything that he receives into his mind at that age is apt to become indelible and unalterable ; and therefore the tales which they first hear should be models of virtuous thoughts.
There you are right, he replied ; that is quite essential : but, then, where are such models to be found ? and what are the tales in which they are continued ? when that question is asked, what will be our answer ?
I said to him, You and I, Adeimantus, are not poets in what we are about just now, but founders of a State : now, the founders of a State ought to know the general forms in which poets should cast their tales, and the limits which should be observed by them, but actually to make the tales is not their business.
Very true, he said ; but what are those forms of theology which you mean?
Something of this kind, I replied : God is always to be represented as he truly is ; that is one form which is equally to be observed in every kind of verse, whether epic, lyric, or tragic.
Right.
And is he not truly good ? and must he not be represented as such?
Certainly.
And no good thing is hurtful ?
No, indeed.
And that which is not hurtful hurts not ?
Certainly not.
And that which hurts not does no evil ?
No.
And that which does no evil is the cause of no evil ? Impossible.
And the good is the advantageous ?
Yes.
And the good is the cause of well-being ?
Yes.
The good is not the cause of all things, but of the good
only, and not the cause of evil ? Assuredly.
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Then God, if he be good, is not the author of all things, as the many assert, but he is the cause of a few things only, and not of most things that occur to men. For few are the goods of human life, and many are the evils, and the good is to be attributed to God alone ; of the evils the cause is to be sought elsewhere, and not in him.
That appears to me to be most true, he said.
Then we must not listen to Homer or to any other poet who is guilty of the folly of saying that two casks
"Lie at the threshold of Zeus, full of lots, one of good, the other of evil lots,"
and that he to whom Zeus gives a mixture of the two "Sometimes meets with evil fortune, at other times with good; "
but that he to whom is given the cup of unmingled ill,
" Him wild hunger drives over the divine earth. "
And again
" Zeus, who is the dispenser of good and evil to us. " . . .
And if a poet writes of the sufferings of Niobe, which is the subject of the tragedy in which these iambic verses occur, or of the house of Pelops, or of the Trojan war, or any similar theme, either we must not permit him to say that these are the works of God, or if they are of God, he must devise some ex planation of them such as we are seeking : he must say that God did what was just and right, and they were the better for being punished ; but that those who are punished are miserable and that God is the author of their misery, the poet is not to be permitted to say ; though he may say that the wicked are miserable because they require to be punished, and are benefited by receiving punishment from God ; but that God being good is the author of evil to any one, is to be strenuously denied, and not allowed to be sung or said in any well-ordered com monwealth by old or young. Such a fiction is suicidal, ruin ous, impious.
134 THE TEN ATTIC ORATORS.
THE TEN ATTIC ORATORS.
The great critics of Alexandria placed ten names on their list, or canon, of the Athenian orators best worth remembrance ; which, in the order Plutarch afterward wrote their biographies (essentially though not minutely chronological) were : Antiphon, Andocides, Lysias, Isocrates, Isaeus, JSschines, Lycurgus, Demosthenes, Hy- perides, Dinarchus. Specimens of the oratory of all are here col lected for the first time, four translated specially for this work, and three of the orators represented in translation for the first time. We have arranged them a little differently to bring the debates on Demosthenes' public career together.
Antiphon, born about b. C. 480, was a pupil of Gorgias, the famous teacher of rhetoric. He was of the oligarchic party. Says Professor Jebb : " Antiphon was the ablest debater and pleader of his day, and in his person the new Rhetoric first appears as a political power at Athens. He took a chief part in organizing the Revolution of the Four Hundred, and when they fell was put to death by the people (b. c. 411). " Thucydides calls him one of the three best (i. e. most useful) men in Athens; which the organized assassinations by the Four Hundred make a strange adjective to our ears. All his extant speeches are on trials for homicide.
Andocides, born about b. c. 467, and also belonging to the oligarchic party, was involved in that great and never fully ex plained scandal, the mutilation of the Herman just before the expe dition to Syracuse (b. c. 415). Thrown into prison, he saved his life by denouncing four others, who were executed; but failed to clear himself, and was banished. He made application for return later on, again to the Four Hundred in 411, still again in 410 to the Assembly after their downfall ; but failed, and was a traveling merchant till 402, when he returned under the general amnesty. He held important official positions thereafter, and died after 390, when, as ambassador to Lacedaemon to treat for peace, he made on his return the speech here excerpted.
Lysias, though born at Athens, (b. c. 459 ? ) had a Syracusan father, spent his early and middle life in southern Italy, and only settled at Athens in 412, when growing old. He was a democrat. In 404 the Thirty Tyrants put his brother to death, and he fled ; the next year, on their expulsion by Thrasybulus, he came back and impeached Eratosthenes, one of the Thirty, and some years later impeached one of their tools. He made other speeches on public affairs ; but as with most of the others, his chief work was legal.
Isocrates, born b. c. 436, was a wealthy and highly educated youth, who lost his fortune in the troubles of the Peloponnesian
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War, wrote law speeches for ten years, and about 392 became a teacher of elocution, continuing such till his death at nearly one hundred, in 338. His school was far the most famous in ancient Greece, drawing scholars from all parts, from Sicily to the Crimea. Cicero says they were the foremost orators and authors of their time. Among them were three of our ten (Isaeus, Lycurgus, and Hyperides), two leading historians (Ephorus and Theopompus), and many others eminent in different departments. In the great rhetori cal contest of b. o. 351, in honor of Mausolus prince of Caria, only his pupils dared enter. His life dream was of saving Greece from destroying itself through internal feuds by uniting it against Asia ; first by reconciling Athens and Sparta, then by some " tyrant " or Spartan king as leader, lastly by Philip of Macedon ; — he died in the year of the battle of Chaeronea.
IsiEUS, born about b. c. 420, probably at the Athenian colony in Chalcis, was a professional writer of law speeches, and has little known life outside his work. He is regarded as a master of logical argument and jury tactics. Of the twelve extant speeches, eleven are on will cases, and the other an appeal from arbitration.
Lycurgus, born about b. c. 396-393, was one of the three chief leaders of the anti-Macedonian party in Athens during the great struggle with Philip — Demosthenes and Hyperides being the others. His department was internal government, finances, city improvement and order, etc. He was financial director of Athens about 341-329, disbursing over $20,000,000 with clean hands, and raising the state income to nearly $1,500,000 a year. He was so much trusted that he was chosen banker for many private persons ; and when Alexander the Great demanded his surrender, the people refused to comply. He died about 323.
JSschines, born b. c. 389, was in some respects the most remark able of all, his unassisted talents raising him from the lowest station to the second place among classic orators. Even if not the son of a courtesan, and at first a low comic actor, as Demosthenes asserted, — which we should count to his honor, — he was certainly very poor and uneducated, was a soldier till about forty, then clerk to the Assembly, and began soon after to display mastery as a public speaker. He took from the first, like Isocrates, the Macedonian side in the bickerings and negotiations with Philip ; was twice envoy to him, and probably disbursing agent for his money in Athens and elsewhere, though Demosthenes failed to convict him of bribery; and in 330, eight years after Chaeronea, attempting to prevent pub lic honors to Demosthenes for patriotism, was himself exiled, and set up a school of elocution in Rhodes. He died in Samos, b. c. 314.
Demosthenes, the greatest orator of antiquity, the son of a rich Athenian manufacturer, was born about b. c. 385. His father dying
136 ANTIPHON.
when the boy was small, his education was neglected; but at seventeen he began to train himself in oratory, in spite of a bad stammer and weak lungs. His oratory was applied partly to law cases, but also to politics, especially to opposing the attempts of Philip of Macedon to form a league against Persia under Macedonian hegemony, which he felt must result first or last, as it did, in destroying Grecian freedom. He failed. The allied Athenian and Boeotian army was defeated at Chaeronea, b. o. 338, and Demosthenes was accused of cowardice, bribery, etc. , by his rival ^Eschines ; but turned the tables by his oration "On the Crown," gaining a golden crown for his political conduct, and sending his rival into exile. After several ups and downs, — being once banished, but recalled with enthusiasm after Alexander's death, — he poisoned himself, b. o. 322, to avoid being delivered up to Antipater.
Hyperides, born probably about b. o. 390, began as a writer of law speeches, and entered public life in a very usual fashion, by prosecuting a general for treason. He was one of Demosthenes' supporters against Philip ; but in the affair of Harpalus's money (see note before extract from Dinarchus) was one of the public prosecu tors of Demosthenes, and on the latter's banishment succeeded to his place as chief popular leader. He incited the Lamian War against Antipater and Craterus; and on the success of Antipater at Crannon, b. o. 322, was put to death.
Dinarchus, born at Corinth about b. o. 361, early settled at Athens as a writer of law speeches, and in 324 wrote three orations against Demosthenes and others for the prosecutors in the Harpalus case. He had been a pupil of Demetrius Phalereus, and on De- metrius's accession to power, became a notable public figure, 317- 306. On his fall Dinarchus withdrew to Chalcis, returning only in 292. He died about 291.
Antiphon.
Arguments in a Case of Accidental Homicide.
(Translated for this work. )
[Two youths were throwing javelins in a school of gymnastics : one was fatally wounded by a throw of the other. The father of the slain pros ecuted the slayer for homicide. It is to be remembered that these speeches were to be spoken by the father. ]
I. THE PLEADING.
Notorious facts, it has been decided under the law and by public decrees, are in the hands of the city executive ; but any case where the facts are disputed is assigned to you, citizen
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gentlemen, to decide. Now I think there is no dispute on this action of mine ; for my son while in the gymnasium, pierced through the side with a dart by this youth, died instantly. I do not charge that he was slain intentionally, but unintention ally ; but the calamity fell on me none the less when uninten tional than if intentional. And nothing weighs on the dead ; all inflictions are on the living. I ask of you who have been stricken by the loss of children, that in pity for my son's pre mature death, you will interdict the slayer from what the law interdicts him from, and not allow the whole city to be contam inated by him.
[The father of the accidental slayer put in the defense that there was no homicide, as the slain youth was the cause of his own death by running toward the target when the dart was thrown, and so getting in its way. He also as matter of equity asked that his son, innocent of intentional wrong, be not visited with unmerited punishment, and his own old age be commiserated. ]
II. REPLY TO THE DEFENSE.
That necessity forces everybody both to speak and act against nature, it seems to me this party makes clear by deed as well as by word. For before the trial he displayed very little impudence or audacity ; but now he is forced by this event to say what I never expected him to. Most foolishly, I did not expect him to contradict my statement, or I should not by making one speech against his two have robbed myself of half my accusation ; and this man would have defended himself by speech for speech, indeed, but not made unan swerable charges. He has done this many times over in his speech, and now begs you against righteousness to accept his defense. But I have committed no offense at all, only suf fered ills and wrongs, and now worse of the same sort in deed and word ; and I too take refuge in your pity, and beg of you, gentlemen, the punishers of unrighteous deeds, the discrimina
tors of righteous ones, not to be persuaded in a plain matter by tricky quibbles in words, but to give truth, in the mouths of those telling it, the victory over falsehood : for we agree that the latter is more plausible than what is truer, but the former will be uttered more guilelessly and less skillfully.
Confiding in justice, then, I scorn this defense ; yet, dis trusting the cruelty of fate, I fear lest not alone I have lost the service of a son, but also that I shall see him condemned
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by you as a suicide. For this man has reached that point of impudence and audacity, where he denies that the thrower and slayer either wounded or slew; he alleges that the one who neither touched the dart nor undertook to throw it, miss ing the whole earth and all the bodies on it, thrust the dart through his own side. Even if I charged that the killing was intentional, it seems to me it would be more plausible than his story, that the other youth neither threw nor slew. For just then, my son, called by his teacher of gymnastics to pick up the darts for the throwers, coming in the way of that hostile dart through the recklessness of the thrower, and committing no error of any kind, perished miserably; the other, though miscalculating the time it took to pick up the darts, was not prevented from hitting the mark — a hapless and bitter mark for me. He did not slay intentionally ; but he had better intentionally have neither thrown nor slain, for unintention ally not less than intentionally he slew my son.
This man denies the slaying altogether, and says he cannot be held under the law, which prohibits all killing whether just or unjust. But some one was the thrower ? Does the homi cide, then, belong to bystanders or teacher ? No one accuses any of them ; for to me the death is not a mystery, but per fectly plain. I say the law rightfully declares that slayers shall be punished ; for not only is it just that the unintentional slayer shall come to unintentional grief, but the unintentionally not less than intentionally slain suffers unjustly if he remains unavenged. For even if the error happens through the god's neglectfulness, yet, being an error, just retribution should fall on the erring ; and if a divine stain rests upon a sacrilegious culprit, it is unrighteous to hinder the divine visitations. But the defense say, too, it is not befitting that those who practice good deeds should be afflicted with ills : then how do we re ceive our deserts if we, no way inferior to them in practice, are punished with death ? But admitting them to be blameless, and the calamity to be accidental and not to be shifted to the blameless, the fact makes for our side. For my son, who sinned against no one in anything, but died at this youth's hands, will fare unjustly if unavenged ; and I, more blameless even than he, shall suffer unrighteously if I do not obtain what the law gives me.
Furthermore, I will make plain that the youth cannot be acquitted of offense nor of unintentional slaying, as they
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allege, but that both these are common to both boys. For if it is correct to say that my boy was his own murderer for running against the throw of the dart and not standing quiet, the other youth is not clear of blame, since my boy died stand ing quiet, and not himself throwing a dart. The death took place between the two : my boy, if erring, punished himself more heavily than according to the measure of his error, by death ; while he who had been his partner and companion in the things which had nothing to do with the error — how is it right that he should escape unpunished ?
Then on the defense of these defenders, that my son was a partner in his own killing, you cannot justly or righteously acquit this youth ; for we who have been ruined by their error should suffer by you, not righteously but unrighteously, if those who have brought death to us are not interdicted from what has been theirs. You will not be acting religiously in absolving the impious. As all the guilt of sacrilege will be fixed upon you by every one, you must exercise great caution in this matter. If you convict him, and interdict him from what the law interdicts him from, you will be clean from such a charge ; but if you acquit him you will stand accountable. Then, regardful of your piety and the laws, you will remove and punish him, and thus not partake in his defilement ; and to us parents, who still living are buried with him, by your judgment you will render the calamity more endurable.
Andocides.
On Making Peace with Lacedcemon (B. C. 390).
(Translated for this work.
)
That making an honorable peace is better than war, fellow- citizens, I presume you all realize ; that while your speakers accede to the name of peace, they oppose the means by which peace must come, you certainly do not all perceive. They tell you a peace will be very injurious to the democracy, as the present form of government may be abolished. Now, if the Athenian democracy had never yet made peace with the Lace daemonians, you might reasonably hold such fear, from lack of skill in the business or lack of faith in them ; but when you have often already made peace under a democratic constitution, how unreasonable it is not to look first at what happened then !
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for we must use former events, fellow-citizens, as tokens of those to come.
Here we were, then, at war in Euboea, and held Megara and Pegae and Troezene ; and we wished for peace. Miltiades son of Cimon, ostracized and resident in the Chersonesus, had been received back as consul for the Lacedaemonians ; and we sent him to Lacedaemon, having arranged a truce by herald. And so a thirty-years' peace was made by us with the Lacedaemo nians, and both maintained the peace for thirteen years. You should look at this one first, fellow-citizens. During that peace, how was the Athenian democracy abolished? Nobody can show. What benefits accrued from that peace, I will point out. At that time we first built the Piraeus walls ; then the northern Long Walls ; instead of the old and laid-up war-ships we then had, — those with which we had won sea-fights over the Persian king and the barbarians, — in their place we built a hundred new war-ships ; and then for the first time we estab lished the force of three hundred cavalry and hired the three hundred Scythian archers. These benefits accrued to the city through the peace with the Lacedaemonians, and power over Athens accrued to the democracy.
Subsequently we went to war on account of the iEginetans ; and after enduring many hardships and inflicting many, we again wished for peace, and chose ten aged citizens out of the entire Athenian people, as plenipotentiaries to treat for peace with the Lacedaemonians —one of whom was Andocides my grandfather. These made a thirty-years' peace with the Lace daemonians for you. And at that time too, fellow-citizens, how was the democracy abolished? What then? Did any persons capture the democracy and attempt its abolition ? No one argues that, and the fact is the extreme reverse. For this peace greatly exalted the democracy of Athens, and so strengthened it that during those years, for the first time, hav ing gained peace, we carried a thousand talents [$1,200,000] to
the Acropolis, and by law reserved it specially for public use ; that we built a hundred more ships, and decreed them to be a reserve also ; constructed docks ; established a force of twelve hundred cavalry and as many archers ; and built the southern Long Wall. These benefits accrued to the city from this peace with the Lacedaemonians, and power over Athens accrued to the democracy.
Again making war, on account of the Megarians, the land
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ravaged by invaders, and we stripped of many comforts, we finally made peace, which Nicias the son of Niceratus negotiated for us. I believe you have all seen that through this peace we carried seven thousand coined talents to the Acropolis, and procured more than three hundred war-ships ; that more than twelve hundred talents a year came in for tribute, and we held the Chersonesus and Naxos and more than two-thirds of Euboea — to enumerate the other colonies singly would be tedious. Possessed of all these good things, we again went to war with the Lacedaemonians, incited this time by the Argives.
Now, on this subject, fellow-citizens, remember first of all the counsel I gave you at the beginning of my speech. Other than these, has a peace ever been made where the Athenian democracy has been abolished? It has not been shown, and no one has argued against me, that these things are not the truth. But I have heard some people saying that by our last peace with the Lacedaemonians they set up the Thirty, and many Athenians perished by drinking hemlock and others fled into exile. Those who say this do not make the proper distinc tion ; for a peace and a capitulation often differ from each other. A peace is made on equal terms, each harmonizing with the other the points on which they disagree ; but a capitulation — whichever wins in a war, the stronger enforces it on the weaker by dictation. In this instance the Lacedaemonians, conquering us in war, forced us to pull down our walls and surrender our ships and receive back our refugees. Then, a capitulation was made by force under dictation ; now, you are
consulted as to a peace. Note from the very terms then written by you on the pillar, that under the ones now offered you will make a peace. There it is written to pull down the walls, here in these to build them ; there twelve ships are permitted us, here as many as we wish ; then Lemnos, Imbros, and Scyros were to be held by the possessors, now they are to be ours ; and now it is not compulsory to receive back our refugees, then it was compulsory — by which the democracy was abolished. How do these terms resemble those? This, then, fellow- citizens, is the distinction I make : peace is safety and strength to the democracy, war brings about the abolition of the democ racy. So much on this point.
But some say that we are obliged to make war. We will examine first, then, gentlemen of Athens, what we shall make war about ; for I think everybody will agree on the things we
142 ANDOCIDES.
ought to make war about, — namely, being injured or assisting the injured. Now both we ourselves were injured, and we assisted the injured Boeotians. But if at present our affairs with the Lacedaemonians are in such shape that we shall no longer be injured, and proclamation is issued to the Boeotians that peace will be made with them if they leave Orchomenus self-governing, on what ground shall we make war? That our city may be free ? that lies with ourselves. But how are we to have walls? that will result from peace itself. Is it that we may build war-ships, and repair and own those we have ? that also lies with ourselves ; for it is agreed that self- governing states may do this. But how shall we recover Lemnos and Scyros and Imbros ? why, it is expressly written that they are to belong to Athens. Well, but the Chersonesus and colonies and foreign possessions and debts — how shall we recover them ? but neither the Persian king nor our allies will grant them to us, and it is with their help we must get those things by war.
But in heaven's name, ought we to keep on making war till we have beaten the Lacedaemonians and their allies ? It does not seem to me that that can be done. And if we should accomplish it, what do we suppose the barbarians will have to bear when we have effected it ? And further, even if we ought to make war for this, and we had resources enough and were strong enough in men, we ought not to make war thus. But if there is nothing through which or with which or for which we are to make war, why is it not in every way our duty to make peace ?
But consider, fellow-citizens, both this, that you are now bringing common peace and freedom to all the Greeks, and that you are giving power to all to share in all. Bear in mind how the greatest of the cities are for ending the war in any way ; the Lacedaemonians first, who when they began to make war on us and our allies ruled both land and sea, but now by this peace have neither. And they surrender them without being conquered by us, but for the freedom of all Greece. For in battle they have won three times : once at Corinth, with all our allies present in a body, leaving no excuse, they alone crushing the whole ; then in Boeotia they carried off the victory in the same way ; thirdly, when they took Lechaeum, though all the Argives and Corinthians, ourselves and the Boeotians, were present. Yet after exhibiting such deeds, they
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are ready to make peace, holding only their own — they who have fought and conquered ; the cities to be self-governing, and themselves holding the sea in common with the weaker. Now what kind of a peace would they have got from you if they had lost one solitary battle ?
But how will the Boeotians make peace ? They went to war on account of Orchomenus, not to allow it to be self-governing ; now with a host of them slain, the land partially devastated, heavy contributions paid both from private and public sources, they impoverished, the war prolonged to the fourth year — now they can make peace by leaving Orchomenus self-governing, and will have suffered all this in vain, for at the outset they could have made peace by leaving the Orchomenians their self-government.
But how is it possible for us, fellow-citizens, to make peace ? What kind of Lacedaemonians have we encountered ? Now if any one of you shall be offended, I ask pardon ; for I shall speak the truth. First, then, when we lost our ships in the Hellespont while we were besieged, what sentence was passed on you by those who are now our allies, but were then those of the Lacedaemonians ? Was it not that our citizen body should be sold into slavery and our country made a desert? Were there not some who prevented these things from taking place? Was it not the Lacedaemonians, diverting the allies from the sentence, and themselves not even attempting to deliberate on such proposals ? Then, swearing oaths to them and having them erect a pillar, we made a capitulation on cer tain terms as the choice of evils at that time. Later, when we had made an alliance drawing the Boeotians and Corinthians away from them, and drawing the Argives into our friendship, we were ourselves to blame for the battle at Corinth. Did not certain ones turn the Persian king hostile to them ? and pre pare Conon's sea-fight by which they lost the control of the sea ? Yet after suffering these things from us, they concede the same as the allies, and will give us walls and ships and islands to be ours. What need have we now to go sending ambassadors for peace ? And should we procure by hostilities aught but the same things which friends will give, and on account of which we are to begin war that the city may have them ? Moreover, the others in making peace will lose their possessions, while we shall win besides what we most desire.
144 LYSIAS.
Lyslas.
Against the Younger Alcibiades for deserting his Battalion. [The speech was written for and made by one Tisias. ]
I AM persuaded, gentlemen, that you can expect no apol ogy from me for undertaking this impeachment of Alcibiades ; for such has been the invariable tenor of his behavior toward the state, that even had he avoided giving private cause for offense to any individual among you, he would still deserve to be regarded, on account of his political character, as the public enemy of his country and of every citizen who loves it. His crimes have not been inconsiderable, — they admit of no exten uation, — they leave no room to hope for his future amendment ; they are such that even his enemies, as men, must blush and be ashamed of them.
For my own part, gentlemen, I will acknowledge that I seek vengeance on him, not for your sakesonly, but for my own. His hatred toward me is deep-rooted ; it descends to him by inheritance from his father, and of late he has put in execution all the malicious purposes of his heart.
In many particulars, I have been anticipated by Archestra- tides, who first moved this accusation. He has read and ex plained the laws, and adduced evidence the most unquestionable; but whatever he may have omitted, it shall be my business to supply. Read therefore the law. (It is read. ) This is the first time since the peace that you have sat in judgment, gentlemen, upon such a trial ; and you ought on this account to regard yourselves not merely as judges, but as legislators, convinced that according to your present decision, and according as you either enforce or invalidate the law now read, the consequences must be important to the future happiness of this state. It is at all times the part of a just judge and of a good citizen to take the laws in that sense which is most for the interest of his coun try ; but his duty is more especially useful at the time when they are first plead. Those who would defend Alcibiades have asserted that he could not be guilty of leaving his rank or of cowardice, because there was really no engagement ; and the law, they pretend, runs, " that if any one leave his rank through cowardice, while his companions are engaged with the enemy, that in that case only he shall be subjected to a trial. " This observation, however, is exceedingly ill founded ; for the
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law comprehends not only those who leave their ranks, but such as, being summoned, have not appeared among the foot soldiers. (It is read. ) You hear then, gentlemen, that the law does not more apply to those who fly from their ranks, than to those who are not present among the infantry. But who should be present ? Not those of the military age ? not those whom the general has summoned ? To me, indeed, Al- cibiades appears to be equally guilty under both heads of the law. He is chargeable with deserting his rank, because, being summoned to appear among the foot soldiers, he did not there make his appearance, but abandoned that post which was as signed him ; and he is manifestly convicted of cowardice, be cause, being ordered to expose himself on the same footing with his fellow-citizens, he alone mounted on horseback, and trusted to the mettle of his steed.
This, however, is his defense : he denies to have injured the state, because he was prepared to fight for it on horseback. But this apology, itself contrary to law, deserves only your indignation, for the law enacts : That whoever ranks with the cavalry, without obtaining the necessary permission, shall be deemed infamous. This, however, he has attempted ; and this very thing he alleges as his excuse. Read also this law. (It is read. ) So abandoned then is his character, that rather than serve as a foot soldier with his fellow-citizens, he has shown his contempt for you, and his fear of your enemies ; and equally despising the laws of this republic, and the sanc tions which confirm them, he has subjected himself to perpet ual infamy, to confiscation of goods, and to every punishment which you may think proper to inflict. Yet the other citi zens, who had never before served on foot, but always among the cavalry, and who, being well acquainted with their duty, had signalized their valor in the execution of it, obeyed you and the laws ; they expected not indemnity by the destruc tion of the republic ; they hoped for its greatness, its glory, and its success. But Alcibiades, having never served on horse back, and even incapable of doing it with honor to himself or advantage to his country, must, though unappointed and dis qualified, rank himself with the cavalry, thus trampling on your laws because he hoped the misfortunes of the state would not permit you to enforce them.
Consider, gentlemen, that if you permit such unbounded licentiousness, there will no longer be any occasion for enact-
VOL. IV. — 10
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ing laws, assembling the citizens, or appointing generals ; for all these formalities have been established in order to restrain it. And surely it would be unaccountable, that while a soldier who quits the first rank for the second incurs the charge of cowardice, he who quits not his rank, but his corps, and flies from the infantry to the horse, should be deemed undeserving of this reproach.
Nor are judges merely appointed for taking punishment on the licentious, but in order, through the terror of their decrees, to keep the rest of the citizens in obedience and submission. If you punish obscure persons only, this advantage cannot be attained ; few will even hear of your decrees, and none will regard them : but if you chastise the most conspicuous offend ers, our citizens will be awed by the example ; the allies too will hear of it ; and our enemies, informed of your severity, will tremble at that state which thinks nothing so criminal as mili tary disorder.
It is not to be omitted, that of the soldiers in that army, a great many were sick, and others in the utmost poverty. The first would doubtless have chosen to return home, in order to get advice ; the second to provide for their subsistence. Yet none of them abandoned their ranks, or preferred the motives of present convenience before the dread of your laws and the imputation of cowardice. Be mindful of this in your decree, and make it evident to the whole world that you still have no feeling for those citizens who, disgracing the name of Athenian, fly from the enemies of their country.
I am persuaded that both the law and the fact have been stated in such a manner, that on neither of these grounds will my adversaries oppose me. But you they will supplicate and entreat not to condemn for cowardice the son of Alcibiades, as if Alcibiades deserved any favor from you whose interest he so shamefully abandoned; for if he had been cut off at the age of his son, and on the first display of his evil genius, the state would have avoided a thousand calamities. It would be most extraordinary, gentlemen, that the son of that father whom you condemned to death should be saved for his father's merit; the son having fled from your enemies, the father hav ing fought in their defense. Such was once your opinion of Alcibiades, that his son, yet a child and innocent, was delivered by you to the criminal judge, merely for his father's guilt ; and now when his own crimes are notorious, will you pity him for
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bis father ? It would be fortunate indeed for such men to be saved on account of their birth, while we, who by their licen tiousness and disorder are reduced to the state of suppliants, meet with no mercy from our enemies. Will they spare us because descended from ancestors the most illustrious and deserving, and by whom all Greece has been far more bene fited than ever those men benefited their country? Yet it might be a merit in them to take compassion on their friends, but it is inconsistent with your honor not to take vengeance on your enemies. If his relations, gentlemen, should inter cede in his behalf, let them not be able to prevail with you ; for they did not intercede with him in behalf of the laws of this country, or interceding, did not persuade him. And if the generals, in order to make an ostentatious display of their own influence, should think proper to use it in his favor, you will suggest to them that, were all like Alcibiades, there would be no occasion for generals, because there would be none to obey them. Demand of them, whether it be their duty to accuse and punish deserters, or to assist them in their defense, and which conduct is most likely to insure obedience to their orders.
The defendants, therefore, must prove either that he served on foot, or that he did not rank himself with the cavalry till he had obtained the necessary permission. In both cases, they may justly plead for his acquittal. But if having noth ing of this kind to pretend, they entreat you to relent and be merciful, remember they give you a counsel to violate the oath which you have sworn, and to trample on the laws of your country. Yet wonderful would it be, should you incline to spare Alcibiades through the merit of his protectors, rather than destroy him for his own wickedness. Being informed of this, you will perceive that it is not a virtuous citizen you punish for a single offense, but that his whole life and behavior deserve the utmost weight of your resentment. And it is but reasonable, gentlemen, that while the accused urge in their defense their father's virtues and their own, the accuser may make mention of their vices, and prove that both the defendant and his ancestors deserve your detestation.
This deserter, while under the years of puberty, and living with the blinkard Archedemus, that robber of his country, was seen in broad day reveling with a courtesan, giving this early testimony of his character, and thinking he should never be
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famous when old, unless in youth he was most profligate. He afterward entered into a conspiracy with Theotimus against his own father, and betrayed to him the fort of Oreos. Theoti mus protected him for some time on account of his beauty; but whether dreading his treachery, or thinking to extort money from his father by way of ransom, he at length put him in irons. His father, however, so much detested him that he declared he would not ransom his bones ; and it was not till a considerable time after the father's death that he was restored to liberty by his lover Archedemus. Not long after, having gambled away all his property, in hastening from the headland of Leuce he drowned his companions.
But it would be tedious to relate all that he has committed against the citizens in general, and even against his kindest friends. Hipponicus was obliged on his account to part from his wife, and to declare before many witnesses that Alci- biades had entered his house as her brother, but had lived in it as her husband. And the man convicted of these crimes, and having perpetrated everything wicked and abominable, shows not, even at present, that he repents of his past life or intends to reform it. Yet above all the citizens it became him to be most modest and regular, that the merit of the son might have atoned for the guilt of the father — that father who advised the Lacedaemonians to fortify Decelia, who alien ated the isles, who was the source and contriver of our disgrace, and who fought as successfully, in conjunction with the enemies of this state, against his native country, as he was unhappy in defending it. For these injuries, gentlemen, your venge ance should be wreaked on his whole race.
It is urged that it would be highly unjust to punish him for the banishment of a father, whom upon his return you honored with presents ; but it would surely be much more unjust to acquit him for the merit of the father, whom you afterward deprived of those presents which you had rashly and undeservedly bestowed on him.
And were there no other reason for condemning him, the following is sufficient. He compares your virtues, gentlemen, to his father's guilt; and by them he attempts to excuse it. Alcibiades, says he, did nothing so extraordinary in bearing arms against his country ; for even you yourselves, when in a state of exile, took possession of Phyle, destroyed the wood, beat down the walls, and instead of heaping disgrace on your
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posterity, have by these exploits acquired glory and renown. Thus he compares your conduct, gentlemen, in returning to expel your enemies, with that of his father who returned by their assistance. And it is known to all Greece that they en tered the city to tyrannize over you, and to procure the empire of the sea to the Lacedaemonians ; whereas you, actuated by
motives, expelled the Lacedaemonians and restored liberty to them. There is no similarity then between your actions and those of his father.
Still, however, he insists ; and when his father's merit can no longer protect him, he triumphs in his crimes : for being the most guilty of the citizens, he must also, says he, have been the most powerful ; nor without the most distinguished abilities could he have done more injuries to the state than all the rest of the citizens. What abilities did it require, but determined villainy, to give information to the enemy where to make a de scent, what posts were unoccupied, what worst defended, where our affairs were most desperate, and which of our allies were ripest for a revolt. All this indeed he performed, hurting us still more by secret treachery than open violence. But, return ing and getting command of the fleet, what did he perform against the enemy ? He was not able to drive them from our coast, he could not even reduce to their duty the Chians whom he had caused to revolt ; and in fine, while fighting for his country he performed nothing worthy of applause. It is not, therefore, in abilities, but in villainy, that he excelled : he could discover your secrets and your weakness to the Lacedae monians, but the Lacedaemonians he was unable to overcome ; and promising to obtain money from the king of Persia, he robbed your treasury of two hundred talents. Nor did he dare to disavow his crimes : though an accomplished orator, abounding in wealth, surrounded with friends, he ventured not to stand his trial before this people, but condemning himself by a voluntary banishment, chose to be an inhabitant of Thrace rather than a citizen of Athens.
opposite
But the last effort of his malice far excelled all that I have hitherto described. By the assistance of Adimantus he betrayed your fleet to Lysander. If you feel any compassion, therefore, for such as perished in the sea engagement ; if you are ashamed at the disgrace of those who were carried into slavery ; if you are seized with indignation at the demolition of your walls, with hatred against the Lacedaemonians, with rage against the
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Thirty Tyrants ; — all these you must ascribe to Alcibiades the father, whose ancestors have been banished by you, and whom the most aged of this assembly deliberately condemned to death. Take vengeance, then, on your hereditary enemy, and let neither pity, nor pardon, nor favor, prevail over the laws which you have established and the oaths which you have re peatedly confirmed. Why should you spare such offenders ? What pretense can excuse them ?
Their public character is obnoxious, and have their private manners been blameless ? Have they not lived with prosti tutes, cohabited with their own sisters, begot children of their daughters, treated our mysteries with contempt, maimed the statues of Hermes, been impious toward all the gods, injuri ous to all the citizens, and behaved with a licentiousness so rash and undistinguishing as even to involve themselves in the common calamity ? From what deed, the most audacious, have they abstained? What have they not perpetrated, in flicted, or suffered? Such was their disposition to hate the very appearance of virtue, and to triumph in their crimes. But will you pardon them, though thus unjust, in hopes of their future reformation, and of the benefit that may thence result to the state ? What benefit can he confer, convicted by the present trial, a coward, and proved a villain by the whole course of his life ? Nor allow fear, gentlemen, to awe you into forgiveness. Banished from his country you have no occasion to dread him ; a coward, a beggar, at variance with his kins men, detested by all the world ! Render him an example then to the state, and to his own profligate companions, licen tious and dissolute as himself, who, having ruined their pri vate fortune by debauchery, now harangue you on public affairs.
Thus have I spoken on the indictment to the best of my abilities ; and while many of you may wonder how I could collect such an aggregate of guilt, he himself will laugh be cause I have not related the thousandth part of his crimes. Reflecting then, not only on what is said, but on what is still omitted, you will assuredly condemn him ; considering that he is guilty of the charge, and that it is for the advantage of the state to be disburdened of such citizens. Read the laws, the oaths, and the indictment, and remembering justice, pass your decree.
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ISOCBATES.
In Defense of the Same.
That my father did not take the span of horses from Tisias by violence, but purchased them from the Argive state, you have now learned by the testimony both of their ambassadors who came hither, and of others who witnessed the transaction. It is thus these informers persecute and harass me, first calling me into court under pretense of some private wrong, and afterward loading me with calumny as an enemy to the public. They even spend more time in traducing the character of my father than in examining the merits of the cause; and in contempt of law and justice, they insist that I should be subjected to punish ment for the injuries which they impute to him. Though such matters have no relation to the present subject, yet as Tisias has insulted me on account of my father's exile, I think it my duty to answer this reproach ; for I should be ashamed to ap pear less concerned for the fame of my father than for my own danger.
To such as are advanced in years, few words will suffice. They can easily recollect that Alcibiades was banished by the same men who afterward subverted the democracy. But for the sake of those who are too young to have any personal knowl edge of such transactions, and who have often heard them misrepresented in this assembly, it is necessary that I should fully explain them.
The cabal of the Four Hundred, the first invaders of our rights, having discovered their views to my father, he con demned and opposed them. As they observed his attachment to the interest of the people, and his ability to promote it, they despaired of producing any revolution while he remained in Athens, and accordingly took measures to remove him.