Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/272

 250 HISTORY OF GREECE. establishment of an oligarchy at Athens, the most populous cliy in Gresce, and where the population has been longest accus- tomed to freedom. You know as well as we do, that democracy is to both of us an intolerable government, as well as incompatible with all steady adherence to our protectors, the Lacedaemonians. It is under their auspices that we are establishing the present oligarchy, and that we destroy, as far as we can, every man who stands in the way of it ; which becomes most of all indispensable, if such a man be found among our own body. Here stands the man, Theramenes, whom we now denounce to you as your foe not less than ours. That such is the fact, is plain from his un- measured censures on our proceedings, from the difficulties which he throws in our way whenever we want to despatch any of the demagogues. Had such been his policy from the beginning, he would indeed have been our enemy, yet we could not with justice have proclaimed him a villain. But it is he who first originated the alliance which binds us to Sparta, who struck the first blow at the democracy, who chiefly instigated us to put to death the first batch of accused persons ; and now, when you as well as we have thus incurred the manifest hatred of the people, he turns round and quarrels with our proceedings in order to insure his own safety, and leave us to pay the penalty. He must be dealt with not only as an enemy, but as a traitor, to you as well as to us ; a traitor in the grain, as his whole life proves. Though he enjoyed, through his father Agnon, a station of honor under the democracy, he was foremost in subverting it, and setting up the Four Hundred ; the moment he saw that oligarchy beset with difficulties, he was the first to put himself at the head of the people against them ; always ready for change in both directions, and a willing accomplice in those executions which changes of government bring with them. It is he, too, who having been ordered by the generals after the battle of Arginusse to pick up the men on the disabled ships, and having neglected the task accused and brought to execution his superiors, in order to get himself out of danger. He has well earned his surname of The Buskin, fitting both legs, but constant to neither ; he has showo himself reckless both of honor and friendship, looking to nothing but his own selfish advancement ; and it is for us now to guard against his doublings, in order that he may not play us the sama