Against Andocides

​Nevertheless, so that he might not have trouble from such a man, Archippus got off by giving him money. And yet, since this man thought it right to exact a penalty for impiety from another, surely it is just and pious for others to exact it from him.

​But he will say that it is a terrible thing if the informer suffers the extreme penalty, while those informed against participate with you, being in possession of their civic rights. And yet, he will not defend himself, but will also accuse others. Now, those who ordered the others to be received back are doing wrong and are responsible for the same impiety; but if you, who have absolute power, are yourselves the ones who remove the punishments of the gods, then not they, but you will be responsible. Therefore, do not wish to turn this blame upon yourselves, when you can be free of it by punishing the wrongdoer.

​Furthermore, while those men deny what was informed against them, this man confesses that he did it. And yet, even in the Areopagus, the most solemn and just court, one who confesses to doing wrong is put to death, whereas if he disputes it, he is tried, and many have been deemed to have done no wrong. Therefore, one should not hold the same opinion about those who deny and those who confess.

​And it seems to me to be a terrible thing: if someone wounds the body of a man, his head or face or hands or feet, he will be exiled from the city of the wronged person according to the laws of the Areopagus, and if he returns, he will be indicted and punished with death; but if someone commits these very same wrongs against the statues of the gods, will you not even prevent him from entering their temples, or will you not punish him when he enters? And indeed, it is both just and beneficial to care for those by whom you can be affected both well and ill.

​And they say that many of the Greeks exclude him from the temples in their own lands because of his impieties here. But you, the wronged parties themselves, value your own traditional laws less than others value yours.

​And this man has become so much more impious than Diagoras of Melos; for that man was impious in speech regarding foreign temples and festivals, but this man in deed regarding those in his own city. Therefore, men of Athens, it is necessary to be angry with citizens who do wrong rather than with foreigners concerning these sacred things; for the former is, as it were, a foreign offense, but the latter is domestic.

​And do not dismiss those whom you hold guilty, while seeking to arrest those who are in exile, proclaiming that you will give a talent of silver to the one who brings them back or kills them. Otherwise, you will seem to the Greeks to be boasting rather than wishing to punish.

​And he also demonstrated to the Greeks that he does not believe in gods. For not as one fearing what he had done, but as one being confident, he embarked on shipowning and sailed the sea. But the god led him on, so that having arrived at his offenses, he might pay the penalty on my pretext.

​Now I expect that he will indeed pay the penalty, and it would be nothing surprising to me, for the god does not punish immediately; but I can infer this from many indications, seeing that others also who committed impiety have paid the penalty in course of time, and their descendants because of the ancestral sins; and in this intervening time, the god inflicts many terrors and dangers upon the wrongdoers, so that many have already desired to die and be rid of their evils. And the god, having finally ruined this life, inflicts death.

​Consider also the life of Andocides himself since he committed impiety, and whether there is any other such man. For Andocides, when he sinned, was brought into the court under arrest, and bound himself by proposing imprisonment as his penalty, unless he should hand over his attendant; and he knew well that he would not be able to hand him over,