Thespiae

Therefore he let them decide as they would about this matter.

After doing this and withdrawing again to Thespiae, he fortified their city for the Thespians.

Then after he had arrived at Thespiae, he went on from there to Cynoscephalae, which belonged to the Thebans, and encamped.

but of the Phocians and the Thespians, and of all the promises reported to you by Aeschines,—not a word!

All this chicanery, and much besides, might have been instantly detected, and you might have been informed and spared the sacrifice of your interests, if you had not been cheated out of the truth by that story of Thespiae and Plataea and the imminent punishment of the Thebans.

He offered you a calculation that, thanks to his diplomacy, without leaving your homes, without any campaigning or worry, within two or three days you would hear the news of the beleaguerment of Thebes, independently of the rest of Boeotia, of the repopulation of Thespiae and Plataea, and of the recovery of Apollo’s treasure, not from the Phocians, but from the Thebans, who had planned the seizure of the temple.

but at the same time let us not abandon Megalopolis and Messene to their oppressors, nor allow the restoration of Plataea and Thespiae to blind us to the destruction of existing and established states.

or if, while the Megalopolitans join our alliance in all sincerity, the Lacedaemonians refuse to keep the peace, then it will be equally obvious that the object of their activities is not merely to restore Thespiae, but to subjugate the Peloponnese while the Thebans are engrossed in the war.

The position of affairs, then, if one may judge from statements repeatedly made in your Assembly, is such that the Thebans will be weakened by the refounding of Orchomenus, Thespiae and Plataea, but the Lacedaemonians will regain their power, if they get Arcadia into their hands and destroy Megalopolis.

Thirdly, men of Athens—and when I have given just this one further instance, I will at once pass on to some topics that I have omitted—when we ambassadors returned from administering the oaths for the peace, at that time there were some who assured us that Thespiae and Plataea would be rebuilt, that Philip, if he gained the mastery, would protect the Phocians and break up Thebes into villages, and …

It would indeed have been fair, men of Athens, to call upon those who conveyed to you Philip’s promises, on the strength of which you were induced to conclude the Peace.

and although it was only the other day that they razed both Thespiae and Plataea to the ground, yet now, after a lapse of four hundred years, they propose to settle their colonists in Messene acting in both cases contrary to the oaths and covenants.

But if I leave off speaking at this point, I know that I shall appear to put Athens at a disadvantage, if, that is to say, the Thebans are to retain possession of Thespiae and Plataea and the other cities which they have seized contrary to their oaths, while we are to retire, under no compulsion to do so, from the territory which we now hold.

For when they were unable to gain our consent, they should have gone no farther than to compel us to submit to the hegemony of Thebes as they compelled Thespiae and Tanagra;

No indeed, but it was difficult for us to attempt a revolt when we had so small a city ourselves and the Lacedaemonians possessed power so great, and when besides a Spartan governor occupied it with a garrison, and also a large army was stationed at Thespiae, of such strength that we should have been destroyed by it not only more quickly than by the Thebans, but also with greater right.