Against Aristogeiton II

It has been conclusively proved, men of Athens, that the defendant, Aristogeiton, is a state-debtor and disfranchised, and that the laws expressly forbid all such to address the Assembly. But it is your duty to restrain and check all law-breakers, but especially those who hold office and take part in public affairs, because such men tend to injure the community, if they are unprincipled, and on the other hand to confer the greatest benefit upon it, if they are honest men and willing to abide by the laws. If you once allow those who administer any part of our public affairs to break the laws and override the established principles of justice, everyone who has a stake in the country is bound to suffer from their wickedness. For just as on a voyage an error committed by a common sailor causes little damage, but, when the helmsman is at fault, he brings disaster on everyone aboard, so the faults of private persons cause loss not so much to the general public as to themselves, while the faults of rulers and statesmen come home to all citizens alike. That was why Solon ordained that the penalties for private citizens should be slow, but for magistrates and political leaders swift, assuming that from the former one can get satisfaction even after some delay, but that one cannot wait for the latter, because there will be no prospect of punishment if the constitution is destroyed. No one will be so impudent or so pretentious that he will attempt to gainsay these principles, except Aristogeiton here with his reckless wickedness. On the contrary we shall find that, when once you have given an adverse verdict, all magistrates and all statesmen accept them. For on the one hand, whenever any officials have been rejected by vote, they instantly cease to hold office and are stripped of their official crowns; and on the other hand, all the judicial archons who are disqualified for promotion to the Areopagus forbear to force their way in and submit humbly to your decision. And this is only reasonable; for just as they believe that private citizens ought to obey them when they are rulers, so when they in their turn descend to the rank of private citizens, they ought to submit to the laws, which are the real rulers of the State. Again, all the statesmen, if you will pass them in review from the earliest times, can be proved to have submitted in the same way to your constitutional decrees. It is said that Aristeides was banished by your ancestors and lived in Aegina till the people recalled him, and that Miltiades and Pericles, being fined thirty and fifty talents respectively, did not try to harangue the people until they had paid in full. It would be a most scandalous state of things if, while these men, to whom you were indebted for so many services, were not allowed to do anything contrary to your established laws, this man, who has never done you a single good service, but has committed a prodigious number of offences, should be found to have received at your hands, so readily and so contrary to justice and expediency, the right to transgress the laws. And why appeal to ancient history? Count up the men of your own days and see if anyone has ever been found so shameless. A careful scrutiny will not reveal a single instance. Now apart from all this, whenever a man lodges with the judicial Archons an objection against a decree or law, that law or decree is invalid and the mover or proposer has not the impudence to employ violence, but loyally accepts your decision, even if he is the foremost orator or administrator in your city. Yet is it not absurd that, while decrees passed by you in full assembly as in accordance with the laws should be invalid, you should imagine that you ought to make the whim of Aristogeiton to flout the laws more authoritative than the laws themselves?