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and while still a boy I was banished from the city by the Thirty. And when the men of the PiraeusThe democratic party, led by Thrasybulus, in 403 B.C. had taken Piraeus and made it their headquarters. were restored, and all the rest recovered their possessions, I alone by the influence of my personal enemies was deprived of the of the land which the people gave us as compensation for the confiscated property.After Alcibiades’ condemnation as participant in the violation of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Large portions of the list of these confiscated goods are preserved in inscriptions. And after having already suffered so many misfortunes and having twice lost my property,414 B.C. and 404 B.C. I am now the defendant in an action involving five talents.The talent was not a coin, but a sum of money roughly equivalent (although it would purchase much more) to $1000 (over 200). And although the complaint involves money, the real issue is my right to continue to enjoy citizenship.
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For although the same penalties are prescribed for all by our laws, yet the legal risk is not the same for all; on the contrary, the wealthy risk a fine, but those who are in straitened circumstances, as is the case with me, are in danger of disfranchisement, and this is a misfortune greater, in my opinion, than exile; for it is a far more wretched fate to live among one’s fellow-citizens deprived of civic rights than to dwell an alien among foreigners.
