26. And why should any one acquit him? On the ground of his being a man brave against the enemy in many land and naval battles? But while you sailed off and risked yourselves, he remained here and tampered with the laws of Solon. Because he has spent his money, and many, many contributions? But he never gave you anything, but took much of your revenue. 27. On account of his ancestry? For some formerly were pardoned by you on this account. But this man should die on his own account, and be sold as a slave on theirs. But that he will pay you if you spare him? He who has no remembrance of your former favors to him. For from a slave he became a citizen, from a pauper a rich man, from an under-copyist a commissioner. 28. One could accuse you that your ancestors chose as lawgivers a Solon, a Themistocles, and a Pericles, thinking that the laws would be like those who proposed them, while you (chose) a Tisamenus, son of Mechanion, and a Nicomachus, and other under-clerks; and you think offices are degraded by such men, and yet trust in them. 29. Here is the strangest thing of all; the same man may not be under-clerk twice in the same year, but you allow the same men to be in charge of the most important matters for a long time. And finally you chose Nicomachus commissioner of traditional laws, who has no part in the state on his father's side. 30. And the very one who ought to have decided for the people plainly joined in the plot against the democracy. Now you should regret what you have done, and not endure continuous injury at their hands, nor merely in private charge offenders, and then acquit them when you can punish them.