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Archon Pytharatus,

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Laches, son of Demochares, of Leuconoê, asks from the senate and people of the Athenians

for Demochares, son of Laches, of Leuconoê, a grant of a bronze statue in the Market-place, and maintenance in the Prytaneum for him and the eldest of his descendants in perpetuity, and the privilege of a front seat at all public spectacles, because he proved himself a benefactor and a good counsellor to the people of the Athenians and benefited the people as follows: He was a good ambassador, proposer of legislation, and statesman [

, and he superintended] the building of the walls and the preparation of armour, missiles, and engines of war, he fortified the city at the time of the four years’ war

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and made peace, truce, and alliance with the Boeotians, in return for which he was banished by those who overthrew the democracy. When he was recalled by the people in the archonship of Diocles,

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he first reduced the expenses of the administration and was sparing of the public resources; he went as envoy to Lysimachus and secured for the people thirty talents of silver and again one hundred more; he proposed the sending of an embassy to Ptolemy in Egypt, and those who took part in it brought back for the people fifty talents of silver; he was envoy to Antipater and secured twenty talents of silver which he brought to Eleusis for the people. He won the assent of the people to all these measures and accomplished them; he was exiled for the sake of the democracy, he took no part in any oligarchy, he held no office after the democracy had been overthrown, and he was the only Athenian of those who were engaged in public life in his time who never plotted to alter the government of the country by changing it to a form other than democracy; he made the decisions of the courts, the laws, the courts, and property, safe for all Athenians by the policy he pursued, and he never did anything adverse to the democracy by word or deed.