Book 2
3.30
Now to let you know that this man’s present doings are nothing new, but that he is, rather, a traitor by nature, I will recall to you his past deeds. This man in the beginning, although he had received honours at the hands of the democracy, was extremely eager, like his father Hagnon, to change the democracy into the oligarchy of the Four Hundred,See note on I. vii. 28. and he was a leader in that government. When,404 B.C. however, he perceived that some opposition to the oligarchy was gathering, he look the lead again—as champion of the democrats against the oligarchs! That is the reason, you know, why he is nicknamed Buskin:
3.31
for as the buskin seems to fit both feet, so he faces both ways. But, Theramenes, the man who deserves to live ought not to be clever at leading his comrades into dangerous undertakings and then, if any hindrance offers itself, to turn around on the instant, but he ought, as one on shipboard, to hold to his task until they come into a fair breeze. Otherwise, how in the world would sailors reach the port for which they are bound, if they should sail in the opposite direction the moment any hindrance offered itself?
3.32
It is true, of course, that all sorts of changes in government are attended by loss of life, but you, thanks to your changing sides so easily, share the responsibility, not merely for the slaughter of a large number of oligarchs by the commons, but also for the slaughter of a large number of democrats by the aristocracy. And this Theramenes, you remember, was the man who, although detailed by the generals to pick up the Athenians whose ships were disabled in the battle off Lesbos,See I. vi. 35, vii. 4 ff. failed to do so, and nevertheless was the very one who accused the generals and brought about their death in order that he might save his own life!
