[
5]
First of all, men of
Athens, it is necessary
that you bring about harmony
1
among yourselves for the common good of the State and drop all the contentions inherited
from previous assemblies and, in the second place, that you all with one mind vigorously
support your decisions, since the failure to follow either a uniform policy or to act
consistently is not only unworthy of you and ignoble but, in addition, involves the
greatest risks.
[
6]
Those things must not escape your
attention either, which, though by themselves they are not sufficient to effect your
purpose, yet when added to your military forces, will render all your aims much easier of
accomplishment. To what, then, do I refer? Toward no city and toward none of the citizens
in this or that city who have supported the existing order
2 must you harbor any bitterness
3 or bear a grudge.
[
7]
Because the fear of such animosity causes those who are conscious of
guilt in their own hearts, because necessary to the existing order and facing a manifest
danger, to be zealous supporters of it, but relieved of this fear they will all become
more amenable, and this is of no slight usefulness. Now, to proclaim such intentions in
the various cities would be foolish, or rather quite impossible, but in whatever spirit
you shall be seen treating your own fellow-citizens, such will be the expectation you will
create in the minds of each group concerning your feeling toward the rest also.
[
8]
Accordingly I say that in general you must not cast any blame or
censure whatsoever upon any general or orator or private individual of the groups that are
believed, at least previously, to have supported the existing order, but rather concede to
all parties in the city that they have done their duty as public men, inasmuch as the
gods, to whom be thanks, by saving the city have bestowed upon you the privilege of
deciding afresh whatever you shall choose to do, and you must be of the opinion that, just
as on board a ship, when some declare themselves for making good their escape by the sail
and others by the oars, just as all proposals of both parties aim at salvation, so it is
to meet a crisis created by the gods that the need has arisen.
[
9]
If you shall have made up your minds to regard past events in this way,
you will gain the confidence of all and play the part of good and honorable men; you will
also further your own interests not a little and will cause your opponents in the various
cities either to change their minds, all of them, or will cause only a certain very small
number of them, the ringleaders themselves, to be left. Acquit yourselves, therefore, with
magnanimity and statesmanship in the general interest of
Greece and bear in mind your own interests as Athenians.
4
[
10]
I urge you to this line of conduct, though I have not myself met with such generosity
from certain persons but have been unjustly and in a spirit of faction tossed off
5 for the gratification of others. I do not
think, however, that I have the right while satisfying my private resentment to hurt the
public interest, nor do I at all mix my private enmity with the general good. On the
contrary, the conduct I urge upon the rest of men I think I ought to be myself the first
to practise.