82. This was the relation, gentlemen of the jury, in which he stood to
the citizens at Phyle and the Piraeus. For no one spoke to him because he
was a murderer, and Anytus is responsible for his now being alive. If,
therefore, he alleges in defense that he was on the way to Phyle, he must
answer whether Anytus was responsible for his not being killed when they
were ready to punish him, and whether Aesinus took away his shield and
would not let him join the citizens in the procession, and whether any
Taxiarch enrolled him on his list.
83. Thus you should neither receive this excuse from him, nor let him say
he is punished a long while after the crime. For I do not think there is
any limited period for such an offense; but I do think if anybody is
punished, either immediately or after a long time, he must show that he
did not do the things of which he is accused. 84. Let him prove this:
either that he did not kill these men, or that he did it justly as they
did some wrong to the people of Athens. And if we punish him a long time
after he should have been punished, he gains the time he has lived which
did not belong to him, and the men were killed by him just the same.
85. But I understand that he lays great stress upon the fact that he was
indicted and brought up as taken in the act. I think that is the most
foolish thing of all. As if he would have been liable to arrest if it had
not been added "taken in the act"! But as this has been added he thinks
there will be some relief for him. But this is the same as allowing that
he put the men to death but was not taken in the act; and he relies a
great deal on this, as if he must be saved because he killed the men but
was not taken in the act. 86. The Eleven who arrested him seem to me not
to have thought they were than sharing in the same deeds with Agoratus,
and believing that they were acting rightly, forced Dionysius to make the
arrest, and then added "taken in the act." First, then, having informed
against some in the presence of the five hundred in the senate, and then
of the whole people of Athenians in the assembly, he slew some and became
responsible for their death. 87. For he does not think this alone is
"taken in the act," if any one struck a man with a club or sword and
knocked him down, since by your argument no one appears to have slain the
men whom you deposed. For no one either knocked them down or killed them,
yet they were forced to death by your accusation. Therefore is he, who is
the author of their death, not "taken in the very act"? For who else was
the author, if not you who deposed them? So, then, in what way are you
not their murderer, taken in the very act?
88. I understand that he will talk of oaths and agreements; that he is on
trial in violation of the oaths and compacts which we in the Piraeus
confirmed with those in the city. Accordingly, putting so much trust in
these things, he confesses he is a murderer. So he puts something in the
way, either oaths or compacts or "taken in the act," but he does not
trust to the deed itself that he will come out of the trial successfully.
89. But it is not fitting for you, gentlemen of the jury, to accept his
defense on these grounds. Bid him make his defense on these points: that
he did not give in the names, or that the men were not put to death. Then
I think the compacts and agreements have nothing to do with us in this
case. For the oaths were made by those in the city to those in the
Piraeus.
90. Now if he was of the city party and we of the Piraeus, the oaths
would have some argument for him. But the truth is, he is of the Piraeus
party and Dionysius and I and all the rest of those who are taking
vengeance on him, so that there is nothing at all in our way. For those
in the Piraeus made no oaths with those in the Piraeus.
91. By all means this man seems to me to deserve not merely one death;
this man who says (he was adopted by) the people, and seems to have
treated badly the people whom he calls his father, and neglected and
betrayed those by whom he might have become better and more powerful.
One, therefore, who is found to have maltreated his father and not to
have furnished him with the necessities of life, and to have taken away
from his adopted father the property he had, does not he on this account,
by the law of maltreatment, deserve to be put to death?
92. It is the duty of all of you, gentlemen of the jury, just as of each
one of us, to take vengeance on behalf of these men. For when they died
they left this charge to you and to us, and to all others, to punish on
their behalf this Agoratus, their murderer, and to injure him as much as
each one could. If these men ever did any good to the state or to the
people--and you yourselves admit that they did--it is the duty of all of
you to be their friends and relatives, so they made this request no more
of us than of each one of you. 93. Accordingly it is right, neither by
divine nor human law, for you to let this man go. Therefore do you now,
Athenians, take vengeance on this man, their murderer, since you can do
so, as at the time the men died you were not able to aid them on account
of the circumstances which surrounded you. Remember, Athenians, that you
are not doing the cruelest act of all. But if you acquit this Agoratus
you are not only doing this, but also, by the same vote, you sanction the
death of those men whom you admit to have been well disposed to you. 94.
By acquitting the man who is the author of their death, you are deciding
that they were justly put to death. They would feel most terribly if
those to whom they had entrusted the task of revenge, as being their
friends, should cast the same vote as the Thirty on these men. 95. By the
gods, gentlemen of the jury, do not in any way, or by any act or
contrivance whatever, vote to sanction the death of these men who were
killed by the Thirty and this Agoratus for having done many good things
for you. Remembering all the evils, both those in common with the state
and those in a private way, as many as each endured when these men met
their death, take vengeance on the author of these things. It has been
clearly proved from the votes and testimony and everything else, that
Agoratus was the cause of their death. 96. Besides, it is your duty to
vote in opposition to the Thirty. Acquit those whom they condemned.
Condemn those whom they acquitted. The Thirty decreed death for those men
who were your friends whom you must acquit. They acquitted Agoratus since
he seemed to destroy those zealously; him you should condemn. 97. If you
vote in opposition to the Thirty, in the first place, you will not be
their accomplices; then again you will have avenged your own friends;
finally, you will seem to have voted in accordance with divine and human
laws.