No one, I take it, will dispute the splendour, the perfection of the
Laconian constitution. Imagine one of the ephors there in Sparta, in
lieu of devoted obedience to the majority, taking on himself to find
fault with the government and to oppose all measures. Do you not think
that the ephors themselves, and the whole commonwealth besides, would
hold this renegade worthy of condign punishment? So, too, by the same
token, if you are wise, do you spare yourselves, not him. For what
does the alternative mean? I will tell you. His preservation will
cause the courage of many who hold opposite views to your own to rise;
his destruction will cut off the last hopes of all your enemies,
whether within or without the city."

[9] An annotator seems to have added here the words, occurring in the
MSS., "the buskin which seems to fit both legs equally, but is
constant to neither," unless, indeed, they are an original
"marginal note" of the author. For the character of Theramenes, as
popularly conceived, cf. Aristoph. "Frogs," 538, 968 foll., and
Thuc. viii. 92; and Prof. Jowett, "Thuc." vol. ii. pp. 523, 524.

With these words he sat down, but Theramenes rose and said: "Sirs,
with your permission I will first touch upon the charge against me
which Critias has mentioned last. The assertion is that as the accuser
of the generals I was their murderer. Now I presume it was not I who
began the attack upon them, but it was they who asserted that in spite
of the orders given me I had neglected to pick up the unfortunates in
the sea-fight off Lesbos. All I did was to defend myself. My defence
was that the storm was too violent to permit any vessel to ride at
sea, much more therefore to pick up the men, and this defence was
accepted by my fellow-citizens as highly reasonable, while the
generals seemed to be condemned out of their own mouths. For while