35
With regard to my father’s services here in Athens as choregus and gymnasiarch and trierarchThese public services (referred to in Isoc. 16.32) were the liturgies , discharged by the wealthier citizens, e.g., the choregia (expenses of the public choruses); the gymnasiarchia (defraying of expenses of training athletes for the contests); and the trierarchia (the cost of equipping a war-ship and keeping it in service for a year). I am ashamed to speak; for so greatly did he excel in all the other public duties that, although those who have served the state in less splendid fashion sing their own praises therefor, if anyone should on my father’s behalf ask for a vote of thanks even in recognition of services as great as his, he would seem to be talking about petty things.
36
As regards his behavior as a citizen—for neither should this be passed over in silence—just as he on his part did not neglect his civic duties, but on the contrary, to so great a degree had proved himself a more loyal friend of the people than those who had gained the highest repute, that while, as you will find, the others stirred up sedition for selfish advantage, he was incurring danger on your behalf. For his devotion to the democracy was not that of one who was excluded from the oligarchy, but of one who was invited to join it: indeed, time and again when it was in his power as one of a small group, not only to rule the rest, but even to dominate them, he refused, choosing rather to suffer the city’s unjust penalties rather than to be traitor to our form of government.
