Speeches, addresses, etc., Greek -- Translations into English
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
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