25
Now it is likely that they will talk about their trierarchies, and say that they have expended their property upon you. That their statements will be false; that they have squandered much of their property upon themselves, while the state has received but a small share; and that they will deem it right to reap from you a gratitude that is not deserved nor due—all this I shall pass over. I myself, men of the jury, deem it right that somewhat of gratitude should be accorded by you to all who bear the public burdens. But to whom should you accord most gratitude? To those who, while in their actions doing what is of service to the state, do not bring to pass what all would call a shame and a reproach.
26
But those who while performing public services have squandered their own property, bring the state into disrepute instead of rendering her service. For no man ever yet blamed himself; on the contrary, he declares that the state has taken away his property. But those who with ready hearts perform all the duties you lay upon them, and who by the soberness of their lives in other matters preserve their property, rightly have the better of the others in this respect, that they both have been and will be of service, and also because this service accrues to you from them without reproach. We shall be found to be men of this type in our relations to you; as for them, I shall pass them by, that they may not charge that I am speaking evil of them.
