25. It is worth, while to recall what was done after the Four Hundred. For you will understand that what they advised never was for your advantage, but what I advise is for the lasting advantage of both forms of government. For you know, Epigenes and Demophanes and Cleisthenes as private citizens enjoyed the privileges of the state, but in their political career were responsible for the gravest errors. 26. For they persuaded you to condemn to death some without a trial, to confiscate unjustly the property of many, and to banish citizens and deprive them of their civil rights. For they were such men as to let the guilty go for a bribe, and to ruin the innocent by bringing information to you. And they did not cease until they brought the state to a state of confusion and utter ruin, and had raised themselves from poverty to wealth. 27. But you were in such a condition that you received the exiles, restored civil rights and swore to keep the peace. And finally you would more willingly have aided the informer in the democracy than the leaders in the oligarchy. Naturally too, gentlemen of the jury. For it is evident to all that the democracy arose from the unjust conduct of men in the oligarchy, and that the oligarchy was twice established because of the informers in the democracy. So there is no use in taking these men as counselors, for their advice has never been an aid. 28. And It should be realized that those of the Piraeus party who have the greatest reputation, and risked the most and benefited you most, advised the people to be faithful to their oaths and agreements, considering that this was the safeguard of the democracy. For it will bring security to the city party for the past, and for the Piraeus party their form of government will remain the longest time. 29. These are the ones you should trust with much more reason than those who in exile were brought back through others and become informers on their return. But I think, gentlemen of the jury, that some of those who remained in the city evidently share my opinions, both under the democracy and the oligarchy, as many as are citizens. 30. And it is a matter for speculation what they would have done, had they been allowed to become members of the Thirty, as they now under a democracy do the same things as they (_the Thirty_), and suddenly became wealthy men, never giving any account of the many offices they hold, but they arouse, suspicion instead of harmony, have declared war and not peace, and through them we have lost the confidence of the Greeks. 31. They are responsible for such evils and many others, and differ from the Thirty only that those during the oligarchy desired what these do, while these men under the democracy desire what those do, and both parties think it a duty to wrong whomsoever they wish, as if all other men were guilty, while they themselves were the noblest men. 32. Yet they are not so much to be wondered at as you, because you know the