Against Philocles
What in Heaven's name are we to say about such
men as this? How will you deal with the wickedness of Philocles, who has been
convicted by the Areopagus not once only but three times, as you all know, and
as you were recently informed in the Assembly? He has lied before all the
Athenians and the surrounding crowd, saying that he would prevent Harpalus from
putting into the
Piraeus, when he
had been appointed by you as general in command of Munichia and the dockyards,
[
2]
and he dared to take bribes against you
all, against your country and your wives and children; he has broken the oath
which he swore between the statue of Athena and the table; and he proposed a
decree against himself imposing the death penalty on him if he had accepted any
of the money which Harpalus brought into the country.
[
3]
Yet despite this he dared to come and show himself to you
when you knew that he had been proved answerable on all these counts. It is not
justice on which he is relying, Athenians; for what has he to do with justice?
No, it is audacity and effrontery, in virtue of which he has seen fit to take
bribes in the past, to the utter disregard of yourselves and the course of
justice in the city, and has now come forward to explain that he is guilty of
none of these things. So complete has been his contempt for your apathy.
[
4]
The law of the city, which binds us all,
lays it down that if anyone breaks an agreement made in the presence of one of
the citizens he shall be liable as an offender. Shall this man, who has deceived
every Athenian, betrayed the trust which he did not deserve to receive from you,
and so done everything in his power to ruin all the city's institutions, claim
that he is coming to make his defence against the charge laid against him?
[
5]
It is my personal opinion, Athenians, if I
am to speak the truth,—as I must,—that there is no question
whether the reports bearing on Philocles are true or false; you have simply to
consider now the punishment mentioned in the decree and to decide whether you
ought to fine a man who has done the city so much harm or sentence him to
death,—as he proposed in the decree against
himself,—confiscating the property which he has amassed from
perquisites like this.
[
6]
Do you think that this question of the gold is the first
occasion when Philocles has shown his dishonesty and that he has never taken
bribes against you before? You are wrong. He has been like this a long time,
though you did not notice it; indeed you have been fortunate not to have met
with his venality on more important occasions; for there is no greater menace
than a man whose dishonesty passes unobserved.
[
7]
Athenians, will you not all unite in killing one who has plunged many of our
citizens into such deep disgrace and guilt, who first opened the way for the
gold that has been distributed, exposing the whole of
Athens to blame? Or will you consent to
hear this man, who has done so much to harm you, argue that the council of the
Areopagus has falsified the reports and that, while he is just and upright and
incorruptible, it has published all this in return for favors or bribes?
[
8]
Do you realize that, although in the case
of other offences you must first consider critically and with deliberation,
discovering the truth, and only then administer punishment to the offenders,
nevertheless, in cases of obvious and unquestioned treason, you should give
first place to anger and the vengeance that goes with it?
[
9]
Do you think this man would refrain from selling any one of
the things most vital in the city, when you, relying on his loyalty and honesty,
had placed him in charge of it? Do you think that there are any triremes in the
dockyards which he would not let go, or that he would trouble to keep anything
safe, if there was a prospect of escaping detection and receiving double the
amount of gold which he has now received? Nothing, gentlemen, is beyond a man of
this type.
[
10]
For if anyone values silver and
gold more highly than his loyalty to you and has no more regard for an oath or
for honor and right than he has for making money, then that man, in so far as he
is able, will sell Munichia if he has a buyer; he will signal to the enemy and
reveal your secrets, he will betray your army and your fleet.
[
11]
Therefore, Athenians, do not
imagine that, in assessing the penalty, you are merely going to judge of the
crimes which Philocles has actually committed; you will bear in mind those which
he would have committed, had it been in his power. Thank the gods, now that you
know the defendant's character, that you have suffered no more grievous harm at
his hands, and punish him as your duty and his baseness demand.
[
12]
This man, Athenians, has held a cavalry command,
three or four times, over reputable men; he has been appointed a general by you
more than ten times, unworthy though he was, and has enjoyed honor and aroused
emulation because of his reputation for loyalty towards you. Yet he sold and
betrayed the dignity of a command conferred by us, reducing himself to the level
of Aristogiton and changing from a general into a hireling and a traitor.
[
13]
Is this a reason why you, the injured
parties, should give way to feelings of consideration for such a person when he
himself showed no consideration in treating you and your fellows as he did?
Those who could justly claim your pity, Athenians, are not the like of
him,—far from it,—they are those whom Philocles would have
betrayed if he had had the chance of a good price; and among them are the
promontory and harbors, and the dockyards which your ancestors built and left
you.
[
14]
You must remember these, Athenians, and
not make light of the reports published by the council. <Treat this
case>
1 as you treated those on which you have already passed
judgement. For it is shameful to grow weary of punishing men who have proved
traitors to the city, and shameful that any lawbreakers and reprobates should
survive, when the gods have exposed them and surrendered them to you for
punishment, having seen that the whole people had accused Philocles and handed
him over first of all to meet with his deserts before you.
[
15]
By Zeus the Savior, I am
ashamed that you should need us to encourage you and goad you on before you
proceed to punish the defendant now on trial. Are you not eyewitnesses of the
crimes he has committed? The whole people considered that it was not safe or
right to trust him with their children and so rejected him as Supervisor of the
Ephebi.
[
16]
Will you, the guardians of democracy
and law, spare a man who has behaved like this; you to whom the fortune of lot
has entrusted <the protection>
2 of the people by means of
the judgement you will give? You are the supreme court of justice in the city.
Will you acquit a man guilty of taking bribes and every other crime, who, as I
said just now, is unique among criminals in that he has been reported not once
merely but three times and might already have been rightly made liable three
times to the death penalty by his own decree.
[
17]
Then why will you wait, Athenians? What further crimes do you wish to hear of
greater than those we have mentioned? Was it not you and your ancestors who made
no allowance for Timotheus,
3 though he had sailed round the
Peloponnese and beaten the Spartans in the
sea-fight at
Corcyra, though his father
was Conon who liberated
Greece and he
himself had taken
Samos,
Methone,
Pydna, Potidaea, and twenty cities besides? You did not take
this record into consideration at all, or allow such services to outweigh the
case before you or the oaths which you swear before giving your verdict, but
fined him a hundred talents, because Aristophon said he had been bribed by the
Chians and Rhodians.
[
18]
<Will you then
acquit>
4 this abominable man,
reported not by one individual but by the whole council of the Areopagus, after
an investigation, to be holding bribes against you; who, though he has ample
means and no male heirs and lacks nothing else that a normal man could need, did
not withhold his hand from the bribes offered against his country or suppress
his natural depravity, but destroyed entirely his reputation for loyalty towards
you, by ranging himself with those whom he once professed to oppose and proving
that his counterfeited honesty was sham?
[
19]
Let every one of you bear these points in
mind, Athenians, and remember the present circumstances, which call for good
faith, not corruption. You must hate the wicked, wipe out such monsters from the
city, and show the world that the mass of people have not been corrupted with a
few orators and generals and are not cowed by their reputation; for they realize
that with integrity and agreement among ourselves we shall easily triumph, by
the grace of the gods, if anyone unjustly attacks us, but that with bribery and
treason and the allied vices practiced by men like this no city could survive.
[
20]
Therefore, Athenians, do not admit any
request or plea for pity; do not <condone> the guilt which you
have seen fastened upon the defendants in the plain light of facts, <or
invalidate the council's report>
5; but one and
all assist your country and the laws, since both are now on trial against this
man's iniquity.
[
21]
The whole country will be
affected by the verdict you are about to give: the shrines which have been
erected in it, the agelong traditions, and the constitution which your ancestors
have handed down to you. It is not a question of Philocles alone; for he has
condemned himself to death long ago. In addressing these entreaties to you I am
urging a far juster plea than the men who have committed these shameful acts: I
am asking you not to desert the things for which your ancestors faced many
dangers, not to turn the city's honor into utter shame, and not to let personal
regard for the defendants override your respect for the laws, the people's
decrees, and the reports of the council.
[
22]
For
let me make it quite clear to you, Athenians, quite clear, that you are being
applauded universally in consequence of the inquiries held upon this money, and
that men who have been convicted of taking bribes against their own country are
regarded as wicked and injurious, haters of democracy, professing, as they do,
to be your friends and to work for the city's interests, and having made their
reputation thanks to you.
6