48
I entreat you, therefore, to aid me and not to suffer me to be despitefully treated by my personal enemies, or to be deprived of my fatherland, or to be made notorious by such misfortunes. The facts in the case would of themselves justly win for me your pity, even if I have not the power by my words to evoke it, since pity truly should be felt for those who are unjustly brought to trial, who are fighting for the greatest stakes, whose present condition is not in accordance with their own worth or with that of their ancestors, seeing that they have been deprived of immense wealth and have experienced life’s greatest vicissitudes.
49
Although I have many reasons for lamenting my fate, I am especially indignant for these reasons: first, if I must be punished by this man, who should justly be punished by me; second, if I shall lose my civic rights by reason of my father’s victory at Olympia, when I see other men richly rewarded for such a victoryFor the rewards of victory at Olympia cf. Plat. Apol. 36d-e.;
50
and, in addition, if Teisias, a man who never did the city any good, is to remain powerful in the democracy just as he was in the oligarchy, whereas I, who injured neither party, am to be ill-treated by both; and finally, if, while in all other matters your actions are to be the opposite of those of the Thirty, you shall in regard to me show the same spirit as they, and if I, who then lost my fatherland in company with you, shall now be deprived of it by you.
