possibly exist a perfect oligarchy until the State is
subjected to the despotism of a few. On the contrary, my own ambition
has been to combine with those who are rich enough to possess a horse
and shield, and to use them for the benefit of the State. (21) That was
my ideal in the old days, and I hold to it without a shadow of turning
still. If you can imagine when and where, in conjunction with despots or
demagogues, I have set to my hand to deprive honest gentlefolk of
their citizenship, pray speak. If you can convict me of such crimes at
present, or can prove my perpetration of them in the past, I admit that
I deserve to die, and by the worst of deaths."

(20) I.e. may enjoy the senatorial stipend of a drachma a day = 9 3/4
pence.

(21) See Thuc. viii. 97, for a momentary realisation of that "duly
attempered compound of Oligarchy and Democracy" which Thucydides
praises, and which Theramenes here refers to. It threw the power
into the hands of the wealthier upper classes to the exclusion of
the {nautikos okhlos}. See Prof. Jowett, vol. ii. note, ad loc.
cit.

With these words he ceased, and the loud murmur of the applause which
followed marked the favourable impression produced upon the senate.
It was plain to Critias, that if he allowed his adversary's fate to be
decided by formal voting, Theramenes would escape, and life to himself
would become intolerable. Accordingly he stepped forward and spoke a
word or two in the ears of the Thirty. This done, he went out and gave
an order to the attendants with the daggers to stand close to the bar
in full view of the senators. Again he entered and addressed the senate
thus: "I hold it to be the duty of a good president, when he sees the
friends about him being made the dupes of some delusion, to intervene.
That at any rate is what I propose to do. Indeed our friends here
standing by the bar say that if we propose to acquit a man so openly
bent upon the ruin of the oligarchy, they do not mean to let us do
so. Now there is a clause in the new code forbidding any of the Three
Thousand to be put to death without your vote; but the Thirty have
power of life and death over all outside that list. Accordingly," he
proceeded, "I herewith strike this man, Theramenes, off the list; and
this with the concurrence of my colleagues. And now," he continued, "we
condemn him to death."

Hearing these words Theramenes sprang upon the altar of Hestia,
exclaiming: