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after disregarding the agreement which we all make with the state, he insists on his private contract with me, as if anyone would believe that a man who made light of his duty to you would have cared about his obligations to me. He is so degraded and so true to type wherever he is, that even after his arrival at Troezen when they had made him a citizen he became the tool of Mnesias the ArgiveMnesias the Argive is mentioned as a traitor by Demosthenes. (See Dem. 18.295, where, however, the name is spelt Μνασέας.) and, after being made a magistrate by him, expelled the citizens from the city. The men themselves will bear witness to this; for they are here in exile.As these men were still in Athens, Alexander’s decree of 424 B.C., providing that exiles should return, cannot yet have been issued. Hence we have a terminus ante quem for the speech.
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And you, gentlemen of the jury, took them in when they were banished; you made them citizens and granted them a share of all your privileges. Remembering, after more than a hundred and fifty years,The Athenians sent women and children to Troezen before the battle of Salamis. (See Cic. de Offic. 3. 11.48.) Hence we have a rough terminus post quem for the speech. the help they gave you against the barbarian, you felt that when men had been of service to you in times of danger you should protect them in their misfortune. But this abandoned wretch, who forsook you and was enrolled at Troezen, engaged in nothing that was worthy either of the constitution or the spirit of that city. He treated those who had welcomed him so cruelly that in the Assembly fled.The sense appears to be, as Colin suggests, that he was accused in the Assemhly of the Troezenians, and, fearing punishment, fled back to Athens.
