selves, spurred on by sordid love of gain.

(17) Or, "the peacemaker, the healer of differences, the cementer of
new alliances, cannot," etc.

"I might prove the truth of what I say in many ways, but I beg you to
look at the matter thus. With which condition of affairs here in Athens
do you think will Thrasybulus and Anytus and the other exiles be the
better pleased? That which I have pictured as desirable, or that which
my colleagues yonder are producing? For my part I cannot doubt but that,
as things now are, they are saying to themselves, 'Our allies muster
thick and fast.' But were the real strength, the pith and fibre of this
city, kindly disposed to us, they would find it an uphill task even to
get a foothold anywhere in the country.

"Then, with regard to what he said of me and my propensity to be for
ever changing sides, let me draw your attention to the following facts.
Was it not the people itself, the democracy, who voted the constitution
of the Four Hundred? This they did, because they had learned to think
that the Lacedaemonians would trust any other form of government rather
than a democracy. But when the efforts of Lacedaemon were not a whit
relaxed, when Aristoteles, Melanthius, and Aristarchus, (18) and the
rest of them acting as generals, were plainly minded to construct an
intrenched fortress on the mole for the purpose of admitting the
enemy, and so getting the city under the power of themselves and their
associates; (19) because I got wind of these schemes, and nipped them in
the bud, is that to be a traitor to one's friends?

(18) Cf. Thuc. viii. 90-92, for the behaviour of the Lacedaemonian
party at Athens and the fortification of Eetioneia in B.C. 411.

(19) I.e. of the political clubs.

"Then he threw in my teeth the nickname 'Buskin,' as descriptive of
an endeavour on my part to fit both parties. But what of the man
who pleases neither? What in heaven's name are we to call him? Yes!
you--Critias? Under the democracy you were looked upon as the most
arrant hater of the people, and under the aristocracy you have proved
yourself the bitterest foe of everything respectable. Yes! Critias, I
am, and ever have been, a foe of those who think that a democracy cannot
reach perfection until slaves and those who, from poverty, would sell
the city for a drachma, can get their drachma a day. (20) But not less
am I, and ever have been, a pronounced opponent of those who do not
think there can