Against Alcibiades: For Deserting the Ranks

So sensible was he of his numerous offences against you that, for all his power of speech, his friends, and his acquisition of wealth, he never once ventured to come under an inquiry, but condemned himself to exile, and preferred to become a citizen of Thrace and any sort of city rather than belong to his own native land. Finally, gentlemen, he outdid his former villainy by daring, with Adeimantus, to surrender the ships to Lysander.[*](The fact rather is that Alcibiades tried to warn the Athenian commanders of the danger of their being surprised at Aegospotami (405 b.c.).)

So, if anyone among you feels pity for those who lost their lives in the sea-fight, or is ashamed for those who were enslaved by the enemy, or resents the destruction of the walls, or hates the Lacedaemonians, or feels anger against the Thirty, he should hold this man’s father responsible for all these things, and reflect that it was Alcibiades, his great-grand-father, and Megacles, his father’s grandfather on the mother’s side, whom your ancestors ostracized,[*](The famous Alcibiades was the son of Cleinias (son of Alcibiades, opponent of the Peisistratids, 510 b.c.), and Deinomache (daughter of Megacles, supporter of the Peisistratid party, 486 b.c.). The people once a year could vote for the expulsion of one citizen from the city, by writing his name on a potsherd (ὄστρακον).) both of them twice, and that the older among you have condemned his father to death.