library_books Bookstacks

Section 32

I will give you powerful proofs of these things—not words, but what you value: deeds. Listen to what happened to me, so you may see that I would never yield to anyone against justice through fear of death, even if I were to perish by not yielding. I will tell you things commonly heard in the law courts, perhaps tiresome, but true. I have never held any public office in the city, men of Athens, except being a member of the Council. Our tribe, Antiochis, happened to hold the prytany when you decided to judge the ten generals who had not picked up the survivors of the naval battle. You judged them all together, which was illegal, as you all recognized later. But at the time, I was the only prytanis who opposed you doing anything contrary to the laws, and I voted against it. Even though the orators were ready to indict and arrest me, and you were shouting and urging them on, I thought I had to run the risk with law and justice rather than side with you in an unjust decision because of fear of prison or death. This happened while the city was still a democracy. When the oligarchy was established, the Thirty summoned me and four others to the Rotunda, and ordered us to bring Leon the Salaminian from Salamis to be put to death. They gave many such orders to many people, wishing to implicate as many as possible in their guilt. But there again, I demonstrated—not in word, but in deed—that I do not care about death in the slightest (if that is not too rustic a way of putting it). But I care entirely about doing nothing unjust or impious. That government, strong as it was, did not terrify me into doing an unjust act. When we came out of the Rotunda, the other four went to Salamis and brought Leon, but I departed and went home. I might have been put to death for that, if that government had not fallen soon after. There are many who will testify to you about these things.