4
This plot of ground belonged to Peisander; but when his property was confiscated, Apollodorus of Megara had it as a gift from the peoplePeisander was a leader in the revolution of the Four Hundred (411 B.C.) and his property was fortified on the counter-revolution of the Five Thousand in the same year; Apollodorus was rewarded for taking part in the assassination of Phrynichus, another of the Four Hundred. and cultivated it for some time, until, shortly before the Thirty,404 B.C. Anticles bought it from him and let it out. I bought it from Anticles when peace had been made.After the fall of the Thirty and on the intervention of Sparta, 403 B.C.
5
So I consider, gentlemen, that my business is to show that, when I acquired the plot, there was neither olive-tree nor stump upon it. For I conceive that in respect of the previous time, even had there been sacred olives of old upon it, I could not with justice be penalized; since if we have had no hand in their clearance, there is no relevance in our being charged as guilty of the offences of others.
6
For you are all aware that, among the numerous troubles that have been caused by the war, the outlying districts were ravaged by the Lacedaemonians,During the Peloponnesian War Pericles kept the people inside Athens, and allowed the Lacedaemonians to devastate Attica, as he knew that the strength of Athens was on the sea, not on the land. Our friendsmay refer to Boeotian and Thessalian troops which aided the Athenians in occasional attacks on the invaders. Cf. Thuc. 2.14,19,22, etc. while the nearer were plundered by our friends; so how can it be just that I should be punished now for the disasters that then befell the city?
