[77]
But from the moment that you punished the authors of the revolt—of whom my father was not found to be one—and granted the other citizens of Mytilene an amnesty which allowed them to continue living on their own land,1 he has not been guilty of a single fault, of a single lapse from duty. He has failed neither the city of Athens nor that of Mytilene, when a public service was demanded of him; he regularly furnishes choruses, and always pays the imposts.2
1 See Thuc. 3.50. The walls of Mytilene were rased, her fleet taken from her, and the entire island, except for Methymna, divided among Athenian cleruchs. These drew a fixed rent from the inhabitants, who continued to work the land.
2 The choruses mentioned were of course local, and performed at the Mytilenean festivals. The “services to Athens” amount to nothing more than the payment of τέλη(?harbor-dues). Professor Wade-Gery suggests to me that the εἰκοστή may be meant, a 5 per cent impost which replaced the tribute early in 413 (Thuc. 7.28). If so, the date of the speech must fall between the spring of 413 and the autumn, when news of the Sicilian disaster arrived.