Freedom of the Greeks

Observing, however, that the present occasion, if you but choose the right course, is capable of securing for you at one stroke glory and safety and freedom, not for yourselves alone but for all the rest of the Greeks as well, but that, if you act in ignorance or be led astray, it would not be easy to secure the same opportunity again, I thought I ought to place before the public the state of my o …

So do nothing of this kind, but whatever you intend to execute honestly and promptly with your whole souls, vote for that, and once you have passed a decree, adopt as your leaders Zeus of Dodona and the rest of the gods, who have uttered in your interest many splendid, encouraging and true oracles, and summon them to your aid and after you have prayed to all of them for success with a vow of the f …

and there we had won freedom, not only for the Hellenes who fought with us, but also for those who were compelled to be on the side of the Persians, and we accomplished this with the help of the Plataeans, who alone of the Boeotians fought with us in that war.

And yet, after they had given these pledges both to our allies and to the King and had conquered us in war, they reduced those whom they had sworn to set free to a state of slavery worse than that of the Helots, and they returned the favour of the King in such wise that they persuaded Cyrus, his younger brother, to dispute the throne with him, and collected an army to support Cyrus, placing Clearc …

Now most people upbraid both cities because, while pretending that they risked the perils of war against the barbarians for the sake of the Hellenes, they did not in fact allow the various states to be independent and manage their own affairs in whatever way was expedient for each of them, but, on the contrary, divided them up, as if they had taken them captive in war, and reduced them all to slav …