even at this late period you desire to correct the abuses, to reform a vicious and disreputable state of things, which these men introduced long ago and which you have suffered to continue, you must to-day disregard all such practices and pronounce a conscientious verdict, esteeming above all things Eunomia,1 the lover of right, the preserver of countries and states: you must consider every one of you, that you are under the eyes of inexorable and sacred Justice, who, as we are told by Orpheus, our instructor in the most holy ordinances, sits by the throne of Jupiter, and overlooks all the works of men; under that persuasion you must give your votes, taking every possible care not to act unworthily of her, from whom the duty of you jurors derives its name-you that are chosen from time to time to sit in justice, and on that day are charged upon your oaths by your country, by the constitution, by the laws, to maintain the rights and honour and interests of the commonwealth. Should you not be thus disposed, should you have brought your accustomed easiness with you to the bench, I fear the thing may turn out differently from what is expected, and we who fancy we are accusing Aristogiton shall appear to be your accusers; for, the more clearly we demonstrate his turpitude without making an impression on you, the greater will be the reproach that falls upon you. And upon this subject enough.

I shall certainly, men of Athens, speak the truth to you with all frankness. When I saw you in the assemblies proposing and putting me up for accuser of Aristogiton, it annoyed me, and I declare to you solemnly I did not wish it. For I was quite aware, that a man who undertakes anything of this sort at Athens hurts himself before he has done with it; if not so seriously as to feel it immediately, yet, if he repeats it often and doesn't stop, he'll quickly find it out. However, I deemed it necessary to comply with your wishes. I supposed that Lycurgus himself would state the case upon the information and the laws, as he has done; and I saw that he was summoning the witnesses who speak to this man's baseness. The general points, which are fit to be considered and ought to be weighed by persons deliberating for the state and the laws, I tcok upon myself to explain; and to this I will now proceed. Give me leave, I entreat you, men of 1 By this title the orator personifies legality and good order.

Athens, to discuss these matters with you in the way that is natural to me and according to the plan that I have marked out. Indeed I could not do it in any other way.

The whole life of men, O Athenians, whether they inhabit a great city or a small one, is governed by nature and by laws. Of these-nature is a thing irregular, unequal, and peculiar to the individual possessor: laws are regular, common, and the same for all. Nature, if it be depraved, has often vicious desires; therefore you will find people of that sort falling into error. Laws desire what is just and honourable and useful; they seek for this, and, when it is found, it is set forth as a general ordinance, the same and alike for all; and that is law, which all men ought to obey for many reasons, and especially because every law is an invention and gift of the Gods, a resolution of wise men, a corrective of errors intentional and unintentional, a compact of the whole state, according to which all who belong to the state ought to live. That Aristogiton has been convicted upon every charge of the information—that no argument which he could urge to the contrary would be endurable—it is easy to show. All laws, men of Athens, are enacted for two objects, first, to prevent the doing of injustice, secondly, that the punishment of transgressors may make other men better. Both of these grounds of condemnation, as you will see, apply to the defendant. For having transgressed the laws in the beginning, he has incurred the penalties; and, for not acquiescing in them,1 he is brought here to be punished by you; so that there is no pretext left for acquitting him. It cannot be said either, that the state is not damaged by these things. I will not remind you, that all the fines of the state are lost, if you admit the sophistries of the defendant—that, if any persons owing fines are to be let off, you should let off the most honest and the best, and those who have been amerced for the least serious offences, not the person who is most profligate, who has most often trespassed, who has been most justly condemned, and for the most shocking offences; for what can be more shocking than pettifoggery and unconstitutional decree-moving, for both of which the defendant has

1 Pabst's version explains the meaning of these words, ovk éμμévei TOUTOIS-" weil er durch jene Züchtigungen sich nicht hat zur Besserung bewegen lassen."

been condemned? I need not say that, if you forgave every one else, you ought surely to allow no favour to a person who sets you at defiance; for that is outrageous insolence. These and the like arguments I will pass by. But this I think I shall demonstrate to you clearly, that all order legal and political is confounded and destroyed, as far as it can be, by the defendant. And I shall urge nothing that is new or extraordinary or peculiar, but only what you all know as well as myself.1

If any of you will consider what the power is which causes

the council to meet, the people to go up to the assembly, the juries to be impanelled, the old magistrates to make way voluntarily for the new, everything in short by which the state is maintained and governed to be done; he will find that this is owing to the laws and the universal obedience which is paid to them: for, if they were abolished, if every man had a license given him to do what he pleases, not only is the constitution gone, but our mode of living would in no way differ from that of wild beasts. For example, what do you think the defendant himself would do if the laws were abolished, he who thus behaves himself while they are in force? Since then it is acknowledged that, next to the Gods,

1 With this and what follows compare Shakspeare, Troilus and Cressida, Act I Scene 3:

How could communities,
Degrees in schools and brotherhoods in cities,
Peaceful commerce from dividable shores,

The primogenitive and due of birth,

Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels,
But by degree, stand in authentic place?

Take but degree away, untune that string,

And hark, what discord follows! each thing meets
In mere oppugnancy-

Strength should be lord of imbecility,

And the rude son should strike his father dead;
Force should be right, or rather, right and wrong
(Between whose endless jar justice resides)

Should lose their names, and so should justice too.
Then everything includes itself in power,
Power into will, will into appetite;

And appetite, a universal wolf,

So doubly seconded with will and power,
Must make perforce a universal prey,
And last eat up himself.

it is the laws which preserve the commonwealth, you should act, all of you, in the same manner as if you were sitting here to make up a club-subscription.1 Him that obeys the laws you should praise and honour, as a person contributing his full share to the welfare of his country; him that disobeys them you should punish. For whatever any of us does at the bidding of the laws, is a contribution to the state and to the public; and he that is a defaulter to it robs you, men of Athens, of many noble institutions, many important advantages, yea, does all he can to destroy them. One or two of these, which are the most familiar, I will mention for the sake of example. The Council of Five-hundred, by means of a slight railing, is able to ensure secrecy, and to prevent the intrusion of strangers. The Council of Areopagus, when it sits in the King's porch and shuts itself in with a cord, is quiet and undisturbed, all people retiring out of the way. All the magistrates who are elected by lot from the people, as soon as the officer has said "withdraw," are armed with the power of the laws, which they were commissioned to execute, and no violence is offered by outrageous persons. A thousand instances besides these I could mention. Everything which is honourable and noble-everything by which the commonwealth is adorned and upheld-discretion, modesty, reverence for parents, respect of the young for their elders—all these prevail by the assistance of the laws over what is disgraceful, over impudence, audacity, and temerity. For profligacy is a thing of a bold and reckless and grasping nature; while honesty, on the contrary, is quiet and scrupulous and slow, and easy to be taken advantage of You therefore who sit as jurors from time to time should give heed to the laws, that you may maintain their efficiency; for by their help good men prevail over bad. If not, everything is loosed, opened, confounded; the state is at the mercy of the most wicked and the most shameless. By heavens ! suppose every citizen had the boldness and impudence of Aristogiton, and reasoned with himself as he does, that a man may say or do what he pleases in a democracy without restraint, if he that so acts has no regard for his reputation, and that for no offence whatever will he be put to death immediately and suppose, under such persuasion, the non-elect 1 See the Oration against Midias, Vol. iii. p. 99.

pretended to equality with the elect (whether by lot or by show of hands), and claimed to share the same privilegessuppose, in short, that neither young nor old would perform their duties, but that each individual, banishing order and discipline from his life, regarded his own will as law, as magistrate, as all in all-if we were to act in this way, could any government go on? How say ye? Could the laws retain their authority? What violence and outrage would the city be filled with every day! What lawlessness, what licentiousness of language, in place of the present moderation and reserve! And why need I tell you that all order is preserved by the laws and the obedience which is paid to them? You yourselves are the only persons here impanelled, though all the Athenians drew lots just now, and all wished, I am sure, to be drawn for this court. How comes this about? Because the lot fell on you, and then you were again drawn for the court;1 and this is what the laws prescribe. You then, who have taken your own places here by virtue of the laws-will you let off a person, when you have caught him, who resolves to speak or to act in defiance of the laws? And will none of you show resentment or indignation at the violence offered to the laws by this impudent and abominable man? Why, you monster of impurity! when your right of speech is barred not by doors or railings, which one may push open, but by penalties of such number and magnitude, which are registered in the temple of the Goddess-you dare to burst those barriers and approach a place from which the laws have banished you! Excluded as you are by every principle of our polity, by the decisions of three tribunals, by an entry of

1 I cannot persuade myself that Taylor and Schäfer (whom Pabst also follows) are right in understanding exάxere to mean "you drew lots." If the orator had been speaking of one allotment only, why did he not say simply ὅτι ἀπεκληρώθητε? I rather agree with Reiske in supposing that a second drawing is referred to. After the section of five hundred have been drawn in the usual way (see Schömann, Antiquitates Juris Publici, p. 265) it is found that a portion only of these are required for the court in question, and therefore there is a new striking of the jury, as we say; this is the dπоkλńρwσis. Or perhaps λáxere refers to the original selection of the whole Heliastic body, deкλпpenтe to the impanelling of the jury.

2 Literally "excluded by a cord." We might perhaps say "corded off." It has reference to the cord by which the Areopagites fenced themselves in. (Ante, p. 62.)