23
You ought therefore, gentlemen, to take the events of the past as your example in resolving on the future course of things, and to account those men the best democrats who, desiring your concord, abide by their oaths and covenants, because they hold this to be the most effective safeguard of the city and the severest punishment of her enemies. For nothing could be more vexatious to them than to learn that we are taking part in the government and to perceive at the same time that the citizens are behaving as though they had never had any fault to find with each other.
24
And you should know, gentlemen, that the exiles desire to see the greatest possible number of their fellow citizens not merely slandered but disfranchised; since they hope that the men who are wronged by you will be their allies, and they would gladly have the venal informers standing high in your esteem and influential in the city. For they judge the villainy of those creatures to be their own safeguard.
25
You will do well to remember also the events that followed the rule of the Four HundredJune-September, 411 B.C.; for you will fully realize that the measures advised by these men have never brought you any advantage, while those that I recommend have always profited both parties in the State. You know that Epigenes, Demophanes and Cleisthenes, while reaping their personal gains from the city’s misfortunes, have inflicted the heaviest losses on the public weal.
