16
And yet, I am told, he will assert that this scrutiny affects, not merely him, but all those who remained in the city, and he will remind you of your oaths and covenantsi.e., not to cherish enmity against the party of the town. in the hope that he will thus contrive to enlist the men who remained in the city to aid him in this scrutiny. But I desire, on behalf of the people, to give him this brief reply: the people do not take the same view of all those who remained in the city, but regard those who commit offences like his with the feelings that I say they ought,i.e., with severity. while towards the rest they feel the opposite.
17
The proof of this is that the latter have received no less honor from the city than those who marched on Phyle and got possession of the Peiraeus. And with good reason: for the character of these last is known to them only as shown under democracy, and they have not yet made trial of what it would be under oligarchy; whereas they have had sufficient test of those others under each kind of government to give grounds for confidence.The more liberal-minded of the party of the town have been tried by the test of oligarchy as well as that of democracy, and deserve the full benefit of the reconciliation.
