Book 2
3.44
And if it is not evident in any other way that what I say is true, look at the matter in this way: do you suppose that Thrasybulus and Anytus and the other exiles would prefer to have us follow here the policy which I am urging by word, or the policy which these men are carrying out in deed? For my part, I fancy that now they believe every spot is full of allies, while if the best element in the state were friendly to us, they would count it difficult even to set foot anywhere in the land!
3.45
Again, as to his statement that I have a propensity to be always changing sides, consider these facts also: it was the people itself, as everybody knows, which voted for the government of the Four Hundred, being advised that the Lacedaemonians would trust any form of government sooner than a democracy.
3.46
But when the Lacedaemonians did not in the least relax their efforts in prosecuting the war, and Aristoteles, Melanthius, Aristarchus, and their fellow-generals were found to be building a fort on the peninsula,Commanding the harbour of Piraeus. into which they proposed to admit the enemy and so bring the state under the control of themselves and their oligarchical associates,—if I perceived this plan and thwarted it, is that being a traitor to one’s friends?
3.47
He dubs me Buskin, because, as he says, I try to fit both parties. But for the man who pleases neither party,—what in the name of the gods should we call him? For you in the days of the democracy404 B.C. were regarded as the bitterest of all haters of the commons, and under the aristocracy you have shown yourself the bitterest of all haters of the better classes.
