59
But no: you not only had the face to depose against your own deliverer, but by making your deposition you sent both him and your other sureties to their death. Some, indeed, desired that Aristophanes should be put to the torture, as one who was not of pure Athenian stock, and they prevailed on the people to pass the following decree.
60
Decree Well, after that the persons who then had control of affairs came to Aristophanes and appealed to him to save himself by a denunciation, and not to run the risk of the extreme penalty by standing his trial on the count of alien birth. But he said—Never! Such was his loyalty both to the men who had been imprisoned and to the Athenian people that he chose to suffer death rather than denounce and destroy anyone unjustly.
61
So this was the character shown by that man, even when you were bringing him to destruction; and you, when you knew nothing against those persons, but had been seduced with the promise to you of a share in the government then being established if they should be destroyed, made your deposition and sent to their death a large number of good Athenians.
62
But I wish now, gentlemen of the jury, to represent to you the character of the men of whom Agoratus has bereft you. Had they been merely a few, one might mention them to you separately; but, as it is, I must cover them all in one brief account. Some had served you several times as generals, and then had handed on the city with added greatness to their successors in authority;
