part I

am sure that it is displeasing to the gods also.”)

Τοιαῦτα εἰπὼν τότε μέμνημαι, καὶ ὁ μὲν θεὸς ἐμαρτύρησέ μου τοῖς λόγοις, ὡς μήποτε ὤφελεν, ἐκλιπὼν τὸ προάστειον, ὃ πολὺν ἐτήρησε χρόνον, ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ζάλῃ τρέψας ἀλλαχοῦ τῶν κρατούντων τὴν διάνοιαν καὶ τὼ χεῖρε βιασάμενος. ὑμῖν δ᾽ ἀπηχθόμην ἐγὼ ποιῶν ἀνοήτως. ἐχρῆν γὰρ σιωπᾶν, ὥσπερ οἶμαι πολλοὶ καὶ ἄλλοι τῶν συνεισελθόντων ἐμοί, καὶ μὴ πολυπραγμονεῖν μηδ᾽ ἐπιτιμᾶν. [D] ἀλλ᾽ ὑπὸ προπετείας ἐγὼ καὶ τῆς καταγελάστου κολακείας· οὐ γὰρ δὴ νομιστέον ὑπ᾽ εὐνοίας ἐμοὶ τότε εἰρῆσθαι τοὺς πρὸς ὑμᾶς λόγους, ἀλλ᾽ οἶμαι δόξαν θηρεύων εὐλαβείας τε εἰς τοὺς θεοὺς καὶ εἰς ὑμᾶς εὐνοίας ἀδόλου· τοῦτο δ᾽ ἐστὶν οἶμαι παγγέλοιος κολακεία· πολλὰ ὑμῶν μάτην κατέχεα. [364] δίκαια ποίνυν ἐργάζεσθέ με τῶν ἐπιτιμήσεων ἐκείνων ἀμυνόμενοι καὶ ἐναλλάττοντες τὰ χωρία. ἐγὼ μὲν ὑπὸ τῷ θεῷ πρὸς τῷ βωμῷ καὶ τοῖς τοῦ ἀγάλματος ἴχνεσιν ἐν ὀλίγοις ὑμῶν κατέδραμον· ὑμεῖς δ᾽ ἐπὶ τῆς ἀγορᾶς ἐν τῷ δήμῳ διὰ τῶν ἱκανῶν τὰ τοιαῦτα χαριεντίζεσθαι πολιτῶν. εὖ γὰρ ἴστε, πάντες οἱ λέγοντες κοινοῦνται πρὸς τοὺς ἀκούοντας τοὺς λόγους, καὶ ὁ ξὺν ἡδονῇ τῶν βλασφημιῶν ἀκροασάμενος, μετέχων [B] τῆς ἴσης ἡδονῆς ἀπραγμονέστερον τοῦ λέγοντος, κοινωνός ἐστι τῆς αἰτίας.

(This is what I remember to have said at the time, and the god bore witness to the truth of my words—would that he had not!—when he forsook your suburb which for so long he had protected, and again during that time of storm and stress(775) when he turned in the wrong direction the minds of those who were then in power and forced their hands. But I acted foolishly in making myself odious to you. For I ought to have remained silent as, I think, did many of those who came here with me, and I ought not to have been meddlesome or found fault. But I poured down all these reproaches on your heads to no purpose, owing to my headlong temper and a ridiculous desire to flatter,—for it is surely not to be believed that out of goodwill towards you I spoke those words to you then; but I was, I think, hunting after a reputation for piety towards the gods and for sincere good‐will towards you, which is, I think, the most absurd form of flattery. Therefore you treat me justly when you defend yourselves against those criticisms of mine and choose a different place for making your defence. For I abused you under the god’s statue near his altar and the footprints of the holy image, in the presence of few witnesses; but you abused me in the market‐place, in the presence of the whole populace, and with the help of citizens who were capable of composing such pleasant witticisms as yours. For you must be well aware that all of you, those who uttered the sayings about me and those who listened to them, are equally responsible; and he who listened with pleasure to those slanders, since he had an equal share of the pleasure, though he took less trouble than the speaker, must share the blame.)

Εἴρηται οὖν ὑμῖν δι᾽ ὅλης καὶ ἠκρόαται τῆς πόλεως ὁπόσα εἰς τουτονὶ πέπαικται τὸν φαῦλον πώγωνα καὶ τὸν οὐδὲν ἐπιδείξαντα ὑμῖν καλὸν οὐδὲ ἐπιδείξοντα τρόπον. οὐ γὰρ ἐπιδείξει βίον ὑμῖν, ὁποῖον ὑμεῖς ἀεὶ μὲν ζῆτε, ποθεῖτε δὲ ὁρᾶν καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἄρχουσιν. ὑπὲρ μὲν δὴ τῶν βλασφημιῶν, ἃς ἰδίᾳ [C] τε καὶ δημοσίᾳ κατεχέατέ μου παίζοντες ἐν τοῖς ἀναπαίστοις, ἐμαυτοῦ προσκατηγορήσας ὑμῖν ἐπιτρέπω χρῆσθαι μετὰ μείζονος αὐτῷ παρρησίας, ὡς οὐδὲν ὑμᾶς ἐγὼ διὰ τοῦτο πώποτε δεινὸν ἐργάσομαι σφάττων ἢ τύπτων ἢ δῶν ἦ ἀποκλείων ἢ κολάζων. πῶς γάρ; ὅς, ἐπείπερ ὑμῖν ἐμαυτὸν ἐπιδείξας μετὰ τῶν φίλων σωφρονοῦντα, φαυλότατον ἐδεῖν ὑμῖν καὶ ἀηδέστατον, οὐδὲν [D] ἐπέδειξα καλὸν θέαμα, μεταστῆναι τῆς πόλεως(776) ἔγνωκα καὶ ὑποχωρῆσαι, πεπεισμένος μὲν οὐδαμῶς, ὅτι πάντως ἐκείνοις ἀρέσω, πρὸς οὓς πορεύομαι, κρίνων δ᾽ αἱρετώτερον, εἰ διαμάρτοιμι τοῦ δόξαι γοῦν ἐκείνοις καλὸς κἀγαθός, ἐν μέρει μεταδοῦναι πᾶσι τῆς ἀηδίας τῆς ἐμαυτοῦ καὶ μὴ τὴν εὐδαίμονα ταύτην ἀποκναῖσαι πόλιν ὥσπερ ὑπὸ δυσωδίας τῆς ἐμῆς μετριότητος καὶ τῶν ἐμῶν ἐπιτηδείων τῆς σωφροσύνης.

(Throughout the whole city, then, you both uttered and listened to all the jests that were made about this miserable beard of mine, and about one who has never displayed to you nor ever will display any charm of manner. For he will never display among you the sort of life that you always live and desire to see also among those who govern you. Next with respect to the slanders which both in private and publicly you have poured down on my head, when you ridiculed me in anapaestic verse, since I too have accused myself I permit you to employ that method with even greater frankness; for I shall never on that account do you any harm, by slaying or beating or fettering or imprisoning you or punishing you in any way. Why indeed should I? For now that in showing you myself, in company with my friends, behaving with sobriety,—a most sorry and unpleasing sight to you—I have failed to show you any beautiful spectacle, I have decided to leave this city and to retire from it; not indeed because I am convinced that I shall be in all respects pleasing to those to whom I am going, but because I judge it more desirable, in case I should fail at least to seem to them an honourable and good man, to give all men in turn a share of my unpleasantness,(777) and not to annoy this happy city with the evil odour, as it were, of my moderation and the sobriety of my friends.)

[365] Ἡμῶν γὰρ οὐδεὶς ἀγρὸν οὐδὲ κῆπον ἐπρίατο παρ᾽ ὑμῖν οὐδὲ οἰκίαν ᾠκοδόμησεν οὐδ᾽ ἔγημε παρ᾽ ὑμῶν οὐδ᾽ ἐξέδωκεν εἰς ὑμᾶς οὐδὲ ἠράσθημεν τῶν παρ᾽ ὑμῖν καλῶν, οὐδ᾽ ἐζηλώσαμεν Ἀσσύριον πλοῦτον οὐδ᾽ ἐνειμάμεθα τὰς προστασίας οὐδὲ παραδυναστεύειν ἡμῖν ἠνεσχόμεθά τινας τῶν ἐν τέλει οὐδ᾽ ἐπείσαμεν τὸν δῆμον εἰς παρασκευὰς δείπνων ἢ θεάτρων, ὃν οὕτως ἐποιήσαμεν τρυφᾶν, ὥστε ἄγων σχολὴν [B] ἀπὸ τῆς ἐνδείας τοὺς ἀναπαίστους εἰς τοὺς αἰτίους αὑτῷ τῆς εὐθηνίας ξυνέθηκεν, οὐδ᾽ ἐπεγράψαμεν χρυσίον οὐδὲ ᾐτήσαμεν ἀργύριον οὐδὲ ηὐξήσαμεν φόρους· ἀλλὰ πρὸς τοῖς ἐλλείμμασιν ἀνεῖται πᾶσι τῶν εἰθισμένων εἰσφορῶν τὸ πέμπτον. οὐκ οἶμαι δ᾽ ἐξαρκεῖν τὸ σωφρονεῖν ἐμέ, ἀλλὰ καὶ(778) μέτριον ἔχω ναὶ μὰ Δία καὶ θεούς, ὡς ἐμαυτὸν πείθω, τὸν εἰσαγγελέα, καλῶς ὑφ᾽ ὑμῶν ἐπιτιμηθέντα, διότι γέρων ὢν καὶ φαλακρὸς ἠρέμα τὰ πρόσω διὰ δυστροπίαν [C] αἰσχύνεται κομᾶν ἐξόπισθεν, ὥσπερ Ὅμηρος ἐποίησε τοὺς Ἄβαντας, οὐδὲν δ᾽ ἐκείνου φαυλοτέρους ἄνδρας οἴκοι παρ᾽ ἐμαυτῷ δύο καὶ τρεῖς, ἀλλὰ καὶ τέτταρας, εἰ βούλεσθε δὲ νυνὶ καὶ πέμπτον.

(For not one of us has bought a field or garden in your city or built a house or married or given in marriage among you, or fallen in love with any of your handsome youths, or coveted the wealth of Assyria, or awarded court patronage;(779) nor have we allowed any of those in office to exercise influence over us, or induced the populace to get up banquets or theatrical shows; nay rather we have procured for them such luxurious ease that, since they have respite from want, they have had leisure to compose their anapaests against the very author of their well‐being. Again, I have not levied gold money or demanded silver money or increased the tribute; but in addition to the arrears, one‐fifth of the regular taxes has been in all cases remitted. Moreover I do not think it enough that I myself practise self‐restraint, but I have also an usher who, by Zeus and the other gods, is moderate indeed, as I believe, though he has been finely scolded by you, because, being an old man and slightly bald in front, in his perversity he is too modest to wear his hair long behind, as Homer made the Abantes wear theirs.(780) And I have with me at my court two or three men also who are not at all inferior to him, nay four or even five now, if you please.)

Ὁ δέ μοι θεῖος καὶ ὁμώνυμος οὐ δικαιότατα μὲν ὑμῶν προύστη, μέχρις ἐπέτρεπον οἱ θεοὶ ξυνεῖναι ἡμῖν αὐτὸν καὶ ξυμπράττειν; οὐ προμηθέστατα δὲ πάσαις ἐπεξῆλθε ταῖς οἰκονομίαις τῆς πόλεως; ἡμῖν μὲν οὖν ἐδόκει ταῦτα καλά, πρᾳότης ἀρχόντων μετὰ σωφροσύνης, [D] ᾠόμεθά τε ὑμῖν ἱκανῶς διὰ τούτων καλοὶ φανεῖσθαι τῶν ἐπιτηδευμάτων. ἐπεὶ δὲ ὑμᾶς ἥ τε βαθύτης ἀπαρέσκει τοῦ γενείου καὶ τὸ ἀτημέλητον τῶν τριχῶν καὶ τὸ μὴ παραβάλλειν τοῖς θεάτροις καὶ τὸ ἀξιοῦν ἐν τοῖς ἱεροῖς εἶναι σεμνοὺς καὶ πρὸ τούτων ἁπάντων ἡ περὶ τὰς κρίσεις ἡμῶν ἀσχολία καὶ τὸ τῆς ἀγορᾶς εἴργειν τὴν πλεονεξίαν, [366] ἑκόντες ὑμῖν ἐξιστάμεθα τῆς πόλεως. οὐ γὰρ οἶμαι ῥᾴδιον ἐν γήρᾳ μεταθεμένῳ διαφυγεῖν τὸν λεγόμενον ὑπὲρ τοῦ ἰκτῖνος μῦθον. λέγεται γάρ τοι τὸν ἰκτῖνα φωνὴν ἔχοντα παραπλησίαν τοῖς ἄλλοις ὄρνισιν ἐπιθέσθαι τῷ χρεμετίζειν, ὥσπερ οἱ γενναῖοι τῶν ἵππων, εἶτα τοῦ μὲν ἐπιλαθόμενον, τὸ δὲ οὐ δυνηθέντα ἑλεῖν ἱκανῶς ἀμφοῖν στέρεσθαι καὶ φαυλοτέραν τῶν ἄλλων ὀρνίθων εἶναι τὴν φωνήν. [B] ὃ δὴ καὶ αὐτὸς εὐλαβοῦμαι παθεῖν, ἀγροικίας τε ἅμα καὶ δεξιότητος ἁμαρτεῖν. ἤδη γάρ, ὡς καὶ ὑμεῖς αὐτοὶ συνορᾶτε, πλησίον ἐσμὲν ἐθελόντων θεῶν,

(And as for my uncle and namesake,(781) did he not govern you most justly, so long as the gods allowed him to remain with me and to assist me in my work? Did he not with the utmost foresight administer all the business of the city? For my