ropolis, he collected
money and betook himself hither. Now, if it were proved that he had
mustered armed bands to attack you, I venture to say, you would have
thanked me that I slew him. What then, when he came furnished with vile
moneys, to corrupt you therewith, to bribe you to make him once more
lord and master of the state? How shall I, who dealt justice upon him,
justly suffer death at your hands? For to be worsted in arms implies
injury certainly, but of the body only: the defeated man is not proved
to be dishonest by his loss of victory. But he who is corrupted by
filthy lucre, contrary to the standard of what is best, (7) is at once
injured and involved in shame.

(6) See above, V. iv. 2.

(7) Or, as we should say, "in violation of conscience."

"Now if he had been your friend, however much he was my national foe,
I do confess it had been scarce honourable of me to have stabbed him to
death in your presence: but why, I should like to ask, should the man
who betrayed you be less your enemy than mine? 'Ah, but,' I hear some
one retort, 'he came of his own accord.' I presume, sir, you mean that
had he chanced to be slain by somebody at a distance from your state,
that somebody would have won your praise; but now, on the ground that
he came back here to work mischief on the top of mischief, 'he had the
right to live'! (8) In what part of Hellas, tell me, sir, do Hellenes
keep a truce with traitors, double-dyed deserters, and tyrants?
Moreover, I must remind you that you passed a resolution--if I mistake
not, it stands recorded in your parliamentary minutes--that 'renegades
are liable to be apprehended (9) in any of the allied cities.' Now, here
is a renegade restoring himself without any common decree of the allied
states: will any one tell me on what ground this person did not deserve
to die? What I maintain, sirs, is that if you put me to death, by so
doing you will be aiding and abetting your bitterest foe; while, by
a verdict sanctioning the justice of my conduct, you will prove your
willingness to protect the interests not of yourselves only, but of the
whole body of your allies."

(8) Or, "he was wrongfully slain."

(9) For this right of extradition see Plut. "Lys." xxvii.

The Thebans on hearing these pleadings decided that Euphron had only
suffered the fate which he deserved. His own countrymen, however,
conveyed away the body with the honours due to a brave and good man, and
buried him in the mar