during the war contributed two fast-sailing men-of-war out of his own
resources, it was then plain to me, that all who had ever been zealous
and patriotic must eye us with suspicion. Once more I could not help
speaking out in opposition to my colleagues when they suggested that
each of us ought to seize some one resident alien.[15] For what could
be more certain than that their death-warrant would turn the whole
resident foreign population into enemies of the constitution. I spoke
out again when they insisted on depriving the populace of their arms;
it being no part of my creed that we ought to take the strength out of
the city; nor, indeed, so far as I could see, had the Lacedaemonians
stept between us and destruction merely that we might become a handful
of people, powerless to aid them in the day of need. Had that been
their object, they might have swept us away to the last man. A few
more weeks, or even days, would have sufficed to extinguish us quietly
by famine. Nor, again, can I say that the importation of mercenary
foreign guards was altogether to my taste, when it would have been so
easy for us to add to our own body a sufficient number of fellow-
citizens to ensure our supremacy as governors over those we essayed to
govern. But when I saw what an army of malcontents this government had
raised up within the city walls, besides another daily increasing host
of exiles without, I could not but regard the banishment of people
like Thrasybulus and Anytus and Alcibiades[16] as impolitic. Had our
object been to strengthen the rival power, we could hardly have set
about it better than by providing the populace with the competent
leaders whom they needed, and the would-be leaders themselves with an
army of willing adherents.

[10] Reading with Cobet {paranenomikenai}.

[11] I.e. serfs--Penestae being the local name in Thessaly for the