Orationes 34

427. I think, men of Athens, that this is not the first day on which you are deliberating about the Theban alliance, nor that you will decide it from what we say; rather, if I too recall aright, you have had it under consideration for a long time before the present embassy. But since the Lacedaemonians have, after all, found men to speak speciously on their behalf, come, let me too join in pleading for these others what I know, making my zeal for these men as much less than that of the others for those whom they have chosen, as my zeal for you is greater. First I wish to remind you: when Phoebidas was reported to have seized the Cadmeia—and Phoebidas, for me, means the Lacedaemonians—how, men of Athens, were you disposed, and what was your mind? Was it the mind that some now bid you take, of making common cause with the Lacedaemonians and sharing in such injustice and greed? Or quite the contrary—did you not judge those men the basest of mankind, and feel joy and grief together with the Thebans, and pray that they might be able to exact justice? Now, then, this very moment has come, worthy of your just judgement, men of Athens, and worthy of the zeal which the Thebans had to free their fatherland. If, then, you are so absurdly disposed as to pray for these things, yet, when you see them present, to betray and abandon them, that is no deed of Athenians; but I do not know to whom I should liken what you have suffered. For I think no man of all is so full of stupidity and unreason as to do the opposite of what he prayed for when it is at hand. But if no one, even in madness, would suffer this, nor would be grieved that something turned out according to his wish, but would surely feel gratitude to fortune and to the occasion—what remains but to side with those who have accomplished the very things you wished, and that too when they invite you and add to you the honour for what 428. has been done? For these men, judging that, if you do not help, nothing of what they have accomplished is any gain to themselves, by the very things they ask concerning the future, by these they bring over to you the glory of what they have already achieved.

For my part, I should most of all have wished that you had shared in the battle itself; for you would have been partners in no nobler deed, nor in one over which you could more justly take pride. But I hold that even the present has, in a way, fallen out as it should. For I see that the dangers have become less, while the honour is no meaner for you. To be entreated by the Thebans at the outset would have been nothing wonderful; but that they, having succeeded, and that too in things greater than they could have hoped, should be no less in need of you than before—this has come about as a thing great and noble and exceedingly pleasing, to me at least. And I shall not shrink from saying that it seems to me even better to help them after their summons than uninvited. For in the other case they might perhaps have said afterward that they had no need of you; but as it is, present and having courted you no less than men in misfortune, they could surely never become deniers of the things in which they will plainly be convicted out of their own mouths. Some say the Thebans are senseless, and perhaps they speak truly in some other respect; but that error which is, so to speak, ever common to all men, this they have not suffered; rather, when even those reputed to be exceedingly wise lose their heads whenever they have some unhoped success, the Thebans, after so great a victory, have remained far from this. For men who come to you and know that, even if they should conquer the Lacedaemonians ten times over, it is no further gain to them so long as you are absent—how are they not in their right minds? And indeed not even the Lacedaemonians will have any just complaint against you if you take up the cause of the Thebans. For let them reflect on what they once decided about Aegina and Potidaea; and if they are willing to look at the truth, they will know that it is not possible for them to say otherwise, nor to cast another vote, than that you must not let these men be, nor leave them alone. For those men 429. could not, even now, point to anything at all in which they had been wronged by us in those days, nor lay any charge against us. Yet they demanded that we let Aegina go free and withdraw from Potidaea—things much like those which Cleombrotus now enjoined upon the Thebans. For you know surely this, that there is nothing more plausible-faced than the Lacedaemonians when they seek their own advantage. Then they are champions of the Greeks, then terribly careful for freedom—whenever they wish to wrest something away. But when we would not endure it nor obey—and you did well, men of Athens, in preserving the city's spirit—then straightway they took up everyone they could and brought on war, caring little for the oaths and treaties which they made with us when we took Euboea, and little for the trophies and the sea-battles, of which who would have thought that, while they lived, they would remember and yet do anything against our city contrary to their judgement? They cared nothing even for the challenge by which we challenged them to give and take justice by argument concerning our differences. But, lightly making away with all this and counting it nothing, I pass over the yearly invasions and the boundless ravaging of the country and the battles one by one; rather, they emptied our muster-rolls, made our many allies revolt, brought others over by force, until they stripped the city bare. And at the last they took away our grain-supply, seized our ships, and razed the walls with our own hands—O Zeus!

Since, then, they decided that we should suffer these things in return for the Aeginetans and for besieging Potidaea, what would they say should be done in return for seizing the Cadmeia, entering within in time of peace and under those fine treaties—O earth and gods and right!—those treaties by which, that I may pass from one thing to another... but I leave this for now. But that, having judged then that those men ought to be autonomous, and having made the city do these things since you did not consent, they will have nothing whatever to say 430. now, if, having shown such ill will toward the Thebans and begun such injustice, they shall pay the penalty both to them and to you—this, I think, is shown from these considerations. For it is not even an equal thing to bring over by persuasion the so-and-sos who have revolted, or the so-and-sos whom one bids use one's own laws, and to have seized and to hold by force the citadel of the Thebans contrary to the treaties—if one must say the greater thing—their own treaties. For you know surely this, that it was not we nor the Thebans who first stirred up the matter, nor were we eager about these things, but those men, having taken on the King besides, forced us, and so we yielded. I marvel, then, if, having laid upon others the necessity of minding their own business, they themselves, having meddled in such great and such serious affairs, shall ask for help and not stand trial. By Zeus, but they have already paid sufficient penalty, and it is the city's custom not to bear grudges, and such arguments as these are brought forward against justice; to which I would most gladly say this: if the contrary were the case, and the Thebans were now seen marching against the Lacedaemonians for the first time, and not those men against these, what would those who bid us help the Lacedaemonians say? Would they not say that they had been wronged and that for this reason we must side with them? I know with how great and how loud a shout this would be said. If, then, they had been wronged first, they would put this forward, and for this reason we would have to help; but since they are seen to be the wrongdoers, shall we help them all the same, because we ought not to bear grudges? And when, then, shall we ever be on the side of the Thebans, or whence, men of Athens, shall we make our examination of which of the two we must choose, if we shall set down to account none of the things they have done? For surely we shall not bid them be distinguished by lot; rather, to whichever side, I think, the things done lead, to these, if we do what we ought, we shall give help. But indeed, as for the saying that we must not bear grudges and that the Lacedaemonians have already paid the penalty—if the other point were true, both would agree. What do I mean? The Lacedaemonians are not yet present, men of Athens. Whence should they be? To what state did they once bring us? Many things would they have to suffer, 431. if they are going to come to this. For one part of that war then—I mean the Sicilian—brought us more evils and troubles than those the Lacedaemonians now bewail. Or against what do you wish us to measure those troubles of theirs? Against the sea-battles in which we suffered so many disasters, or against the battles on land, or against the burning of the triremes, or against the all-destroying retreat? But, by Zeus and the gods, I do not know whether I shall be able to recount these things without tears.

What, then, did the now-humble Lacedaemonians do, when so great and so vast a calamity encompassed the city? Did they judge that it was enough? On the contrary, they banded together all mankind against her then—Tissaphernes, Cyrus, the Phoenician triremes, the King's slaves, all the Greeks—until, having gone through everything, they brought down our navy at Aegospotami. And when such a disaster had befallen the city, what did they do? Seizing the entrance, they barred the ships from the Piraeus; and there was famine indeed. Nor was even this enough, but, with the islands held, and held all our other possessions, and our slaves gone over, and our country ravaged by those in Decelea, and only the bare ground left to the city, they were so far from being willing to help, had anyone wronged us, that they did not even think us worthy of an agreement amid such evils; but the ambassadors who came to them from us they at first sent away wholly without success, and at the last they held off until they had filled the city with corpses, and this addition of evils too we paid them as surtax. And then they made a treaty on condition of adding some further evil: that we hand over to them our remaining ships, and raze the walls with our own hands. Perhaps, then, someone might say that this very thing is to bear a grudge—to examine these matters precisely; but it is wholly the contrary that is shown from them, that we do not bear a grudge. Why? Because, since the Lacedaemonians have not yet suffered what we suffered, nor come into the like, it is not possible to say that we have exacted a sufficient penalty. But if 432. we do not yet have the sufficient one, we escape the appearance of bearing a grudge, if we proceed against them. For whoever, having obtained justice, then clings to his accusations in order to work some further evil—him I hold to have been provoked beyond the occasion, and I call the excess beyond what is deserved "bearing a grudge"; but whoever has not yet obtained what is fitting, if he seeks how he may obtain it—at him I think no one would justly be indignant, nor can I level this word against him. For if we shall call those who wish to obtain justice "grudge-bearers," what hinders us from admiring as noble those who set out to do wrong? Or shall we think that those too who in the courts proceed against wrongdoers bear grudges?—to whom even more than the measure of what they suffered has been granted by the laws for the account of vengeance. But it is one thing, I think, for a man to remember what he has suffered, and another to bear a grudge; and both these are distinguished by measure. And let him who reminds you of the Thebans' offences learn that he comes on no equal footing. For first—and I do not know which to say first, there being many—if someone should ask me, "Would you side with the Thebans, instead of saying, why have you resolved to make war on the Lacedaemonians?"—I would say it is neither for private reasons nor for the wrongs they once did our city, but because the Thebans seemed to us to have the more just case concerning the present war that has fallen upon them; for this reason, I would say, we chose them.

Whence, then, did I digress into the examination of what the Lacedaemonians did in the Decelean war? From wishing to show you this: that the Lacedaemonians themselves, for far slighter charges, led us into evils far greater than those they now have. What, then, does the accusation of the Thebans aim at here—whom, even if they wronged us then, we must not now give up, for the reasons I have stated? And indeed, if one must say a little more at length about that time too, I do not exempt the Thebans, nor would I say they are wholly without fault—I am not so 433. forgetful nor so shameless—but, judging them against the Lacedaemonians, I find them pleading in their own defence the very thing which I avoid. For when they do not surpass by a little, how do they not do what I think it wonderful to say? For you all surely know this, that it was not the Thebans, with the Lacedaemonians at their side, who warred upon us then, but the Lacedaemonians, with the Thebans. What, then, does this mean? I hold that those who war in order that they themselves may rule and hold power do this from desire of advantage, and, by Zeus, from envy toward the existing leaders; but those who follow and share in it partake in no just deed, yet shield the blame with another just consideration—by being faithful to their leaders. And if I judge this rightly, I find that out of the same deeds the one party would be judged worthy of anger, the other of praise. And I know that, if the Lacedaemonians had been willing to mind their own affairs, neither the anger of the Corinthians, nor the complaint of the Megarians, nor the folly of the Thebans would have had any force, nor would it have added to their hatred the power to do our city any harm. But as it was, I think, ill will and envy and habitual faithlessness were what moved the Lacedaemonians against us; and all the rest, being clever men, they put forward as pretexts not ill-timed. And they showed this not least in the matter of the walls, immediately after the war against the barbarian. Or did the Thebans then bid them send men to prevent the walls from standing? Then am I to blame the Phliasians or the so-and-sos for the evils of the war, and ascribe the deeds to them, and not to those who used these others against us in order that they themselves might rule Greece? Or shall I blame Pharnabazus, or Pissuthnes, among the barbarians, and not the King who is lord of the whole? And who ever ascribed to slaves all that they do when bidden, and not to the masters who lead them to it?

Besides, then, that an equal complaint is not owed to both for the deeds of that time, which someone says are common to them, 434. there is added that against the Lacedaemonians many other things too were afterward done hostile and grievous to us, but against the Thebans nothing after those events. So that, if anyone insists upon that former partnership, adding these things, he will find the accusations inclining toward the Lacedaemonians, and them to have the advantage in wrongdoing by just so much as the Thebans no longer shared in it. And apart from these things and the earlier ones, the matter has taken such an order that the Thebans, even if they had the larger share of the wrongs, have dissolved all by their latest benefactions; whereas the Lacedaemonians, even if they had done no other wrong, for what they did to the city in the matter of the tyrants owe the utmost penalty; and it is far more necessary to do good to the Thebans for what they did together with us than to hate the Lacedaemonians for those things in which they had these Thebans as partners. And the strongest point of all: against the Thebans there is only the complaint of the things in which they showed ill will toward us, but against the Lacedaemonians there is, besides this, the greater complaint of those things wherein they came unjustly against these men who were once their own allies. So that, if we ought to bear a grudge against neither of them, it is at any rate worthwhile to help the Thebans for these reasons. But if one must say, beyond all else, the most familiar thing: we ought no longer to be examining the Thebans, for that should have been done long ago, before the alliance. As it is, the alliance, over which someone would have made this examination, came into being many years before. And what is this shouting and this great vote, which one single Theban man cast? But even if, indeed, all were of one mind about it, then was the time to bring it forward, when first they came into need of you. For then, surely, they were nearer the charges. And I would gladly ask those who now strain themselves on behalf of the Lacedaemonians, what mind they had then, and what ever seemed good to them, when the Lacedaemonians were marching out of the Peloponnese to chastise, as they said, the Thebans, because they had not joined their campaign against the Piraeus, but had even received those of us cast out by 435. the tyrants; and the Thebans came here summoning you and begged not to be overlooked, while you had the power both to give them up and not. What did those who are now with the Lacedaemonians then think? For if they thought we ought to give up and overlook the Thebans, they did not persuade you of what they judged; but if they thought we should receive them and use them as allies, why do they now bring against them things which, when it was the time, they did not mention? And indeed, if they were not of one mind with you, they were doing the deed of no fair-minded citizens, being adversaries not only of the Thebans but of you as well; but if they voted with you, they are now convicted of speaking against their own judgement, not only against yours.

I would not call them stupid and shameless; but one who called them either would not miss the mark. Stupid, if they have reversed the order, and, when they ought to have refuted and accused these things, kept silent, and now instruct us, when, even if they had spoken then, it would be fitting to keep quiet for the rest; and shameless, if, having spoken then and been defeated, they again force the same matters upon us out of season. For if you were then sufficiently persuaded by the Thebans in the speeches that they did not jointly bring on the enslavement, how is it fitting to hear now these things which then, when they were acquitting themselves, you agreed to? But if you did not believe this, and yet, from finding them well disposed afterward in your need, were so minded that—being unable to be persuaded otherwise about those former things—you helped them on account of the later intimacy and faith, for what reason will you now abandon these very same men, when of all times you most need to stand by them? For first of all, men of Athens, it is not the same thing to do good to those who are already allies and have become friends purely, as before they had come into this rank. Then, if the Thebans' benefactions moved you then, and you thought you must risk danger for them on that account, now both those benefactions remain and the deeds done by you toward them have come to pass. And then it would be utterly monstrous that, when we had neither triremes nor walls nor had at all recovered from our great and continuous suffering, then 436. we should have shown ourselves caring for them and not overlooking them; but now, when the city has come back, by good fortune, into its affairs and is restored to strength, we should not only shun helping but even take up war against them, having nothing to complain of, and should make now more account of the safety of the Lacedaemonians than of our own then—just as if a man, while sick and feeble, were eager to help his friends, when he cannot even walk outside his house, but, when recovered and having gained strength, should then strike and throttle and beat these very same men instead of helping them against others. To say it in sum: to refuse to receive the Thebans as allies and not to use them as partners in counsel was a matter of judgement; but to receive them and make them allies, and then abandon them, will seem to be the very limit of stupefaction. For it is not the man who has failed to save one he did not think worthy that has wronged him, but the man who first championed him as a friend and then, changing, does him harm. And it will be the strangest thing of all if, while we resolved to receive the Thebans even when they had become enemies and when we had grounds to accuse them, and made them allies, yet, now that they have become allies, we shall be seen to remember the old grievances and shall make them enemies again, in the very manner in which we then made them allies out of enemies. Now of disputes that come to a court the dissolution and end is the vote; but of those that come to you, the people, what could one say is the end except the decrees? Well, then, in these it is written to help the Thebans. Then shall we re-examine from the beginning those whom we have already made allies, and concerning whom we have already resolved what we must do?—as if, having today judged that we should use them as allies, we should then on the next day consider again whether we ought to do this very thing which we have resolved; or, by Zeus, having judged it straightway today, we should then again consider, on this very point, whether we ought. One may hear from the elders that the Thessalian cavalry once came here according to alliance and changed sides during the battle to the Lacedaemonians.

437. Do not, then, think it so great an accusation to change ranks before fighting together as it is, having shared in many and great struggles, then lightly to set one's arms against them—to pass over thus the not trifling difference between the Thessalians and the Athenians. For we shall not say that we have forgotten either the battle at Haliartus, in which we conquered the Lacedaemonians in common, nor that great later one at Corinth, nor the battle against Agesilaus at Coronea; and the rest I pass over, for it is perhaps not easy to recount them all. By Zeus, there is the wisdom of the King, who led us along on unequal terms in the great war. And what greater proof of faithlessness could one mention than to profess oneself friend to neither and enemy to both, and to hate those who stood against him no more than those with whom he was at each time? For this reason, indeed, we might as well emulate his perjuries and all the other evils which were practised by him—but let it not be among the shameful things; or rather, it is wholly absurd that we, being Athenians, should imitate the Persian's villainies. For we and he must not even deliberate alike about Greece, but he as an enemy who hates it, and you as rulers and champions. I think, then, that there is otherwise no good argument, nor one worthy of this name, for our being seen worse than the Thebans. For if they, though they have succeeded, do not abandon us, but abide by the existing pledges, while you will not give it a thought, but give up and abandon them, and that too when invited—how shall that not come to pass which one ought not even to mention? Nor, indeed, is that fine either, that you should be supposed better by the Thebans than be shown so by your own selves. For that, when they invite us as men who remember justice and keep faith, we should neither hearken nor give ourselves to the other side—how could this escape this shame? And it is worthwhile to examine how you yourselves are disposed toward allies who revolt. Is it 438. gently and moderately? Those who have made trial would not say so. For some of them will be found to have paid a far greater penalty than your open enemies, and at this no single man would justly censure or blame you. For in general it is not possible to bear being wronged, and to be wronged by those who least ought renders the anger inexorable. Do not, then, be seen yourselves overstepping the bounds of right which you laid down for others; but reckon that some of those revolters have some pretext underlying, on account of which they might at some time obtain pardon—such as that the tributes were too great, that they were oppressed, that certain men privately overtaxed them, and the like—but against yourselves no single man could say any such thing, nor could you yourselves. How then must there not be a certain excess of faith? For surely we shall not say it is noble to cooperate with some men only so far as they accomplish something good, and then, when they have, to become enemies, changing as if wronged. For in general to abandon one's friends, whether in misfortune or in prosperity, is the name of the same shame; and then it seems to me by so much worse and more wicked to be faithless to the prosperous, inasmuch as those who give up men in calamities might plead an inability on account of which they are not able to rescue them, whereas those who bear ill will toward the prosperous would be left with a reputation for envy and malice and no political cause whatever—which surpasses all reproaches that come from men. For just as, I think, to a steersman who in storm and lightning lets the ship go there is pardon, but to one who gives it up when he might sail with a fair wind there is an inescapable accusation and complaint, so too in such matters the difficulties of the occasions afford defences to those who revolt, but the ill wills shown in prosperity produce a clear and unmixed complaint. And then nothing seems to me more senseless than to be willing to share in the labours and the evils with those in need, but, when the time comes to gather the fruits, then to seek others with whom one will again toil. And besides, I do not even see the end. For if we shall ever receive those who are being overpowered, but, when we have set them where 439. we wish, shall again choose their enemies, we shall ever be undoing the very thing we strive for, so that out of war war will grow for us.

Why, then, should we still risk danger, if we shall not hold the prize when we have won it? But, by Zeus, this is clear; yet otherwise to help the Lacedaemonians recover their power is safe and holds no fear whatever. But for my part—and let no one be amazed at the extravagance—I would not shrink from saying that I much more fear the Lacedaemonians when masters of their own land than the Thebans when masters of Greece. For these latter seem to me unable to guard their rule even if they had it, being less than the task, but in a brief space of time would easily become again such as they were; whereas those others, so long as they have any starting-point whatever, would, it seems to me, not find it hard to grow little by little—since in old times too, setting out from really small and mean townships, Boeum and Cytinium and Erineus, and being no more august than nobodies, but having barely come where they now dwell, through us first they got two-thirds of the Peloponnese, destroying Messene, and then ruled over the whole power of Greece, having grown well off little by little. "But, O you who fear in vain, the gratitude which they will owe us for our help will make them more moderate," someone might say. And what gratitude is there which the Lacedaemonians ever knew toward any of mankind, who have suffered the opposite of other men? For other men, even if they are most grievously wronged, become gentler on account of later benefactions; but for the Lacedaemonians, if any other thing has been made a practice and trained, this too has been studied: when they have received the greatest goods, then to go against those who did them. First, that we may begin with our own affairs, these men, saved by us in the war against the barbarians—for you surely know this, that they themselves furnished ten ships to the navy and four hundred hoplites to Thermopylae, and these were all they had at first, which, even if they had been making war on the Megarians, would have been laughable, while the whole was hung upon us and our triremes, which indeed prevented the 440. Peloponnese from being taken city by city—yet nevertheless, having experienced such and so great a benefaction, and having sent back ambassadors of their own when Mardonius invited us into alliance for gifts, and uttering cries no less than now, that we should not betray them—not much time passed after this, and they were both hindering us from walling the city, and asked for help at Ithome, but, when it came, sent it away dishonoured; and at the last, bringing things to open war, they did to us the very things which they themselves deserved to suffer. Again, in this war, when the King had been useful to them and had jointly accomplished the greatest things for them, how did they recall the favour? Through Chirisophus and Clearchus they brought Cyrus against him. And this was not enough, but again, going through all Europe with Agesilaus, imitating Agamemnon's expedition against Troy, they plundered and harried Pharnabazus, and what evil did they not do to the King's land and his governors, until the power failed them to make war at once on us and the Thebans and him? And what, again, of the Thebans' case? As soon as ever they had jointly carried through for them the war against us, they straightway were in danger for their own land. "Excellently and most justly of all men did they fare," someone might say—for thus most of all were they likely clearly to perceive their own folly. I say so too. But it was not for this reason that they turned against them—to gratify us and exact justice on our behalf; for that is laughable; for they would have punished themselves sooner than punish these men on those grounds. But they came against these too, I think, in due course. To say it in brief, they have spent their lives inheriting the wars from which they freed each people in turn. Do the Lacedaemonians, then, feel gratitude to their benefactors and pay back more than what they receive? What, then, is the cause, and what their nature? They seem to me to judge the worst disgrace to be, not failing to requite those who have helped, but seeming to have been benefited. And, that they may not admit this, they turn and come against the very authors of their greatest goods, showing more precisely that they owe them no gratitude whatever.

This, then, seems to me the way of the Lacedaemonians, 441. on account of which one might rightly say that they are always slaves to their need, but masters, if they get the chance, of their benefactors. Is it likely, then, that the Thebans too will feel no gratitude to us, if we go with them against those men? But most of all, even if some ingratitude should arise, and we should have to fall out, cheated of our expectation, I for my part would choose the Thebans, my portion at least, far rather—those whom even before Myronides, leading out the eldest of the citizens, easily subdued together with all the Boeotians—than the Lacedaemonians, by whom we know what we have suffered. For, apart from the rest, if the Thebans show us any ill will, there will be, I think, many who will not allow it—most of all those whom they now use, the Arcadians and the Argives and the rest, who, if they see them bearing themselves thus toward their allies, will make it a common wrong and with one mind all go over to us. But if the Lacedaemonians are made great through us, and do not bear themselves toward us justly and simply, how shall we meet them, or what shall we do? Shall we complain among the Greeks? Or ask help against them? Or what shall we do, declaring them stronger? But the argument that would come against this is plain and familiar: "You who profess to think well, when it was in your power to bring these men to utter weakness and use them as orderly subjects, not only did not do this yourselves, but even hindered the Thebans and betrayed them, who were your allies. Why, then, do you now blame the strength and the greed of those whom you yourselves trained against yourselves and against the rest?" And that, men of Athens, the fear at least of the Thebans is purely groundless, I think I shall show. For consider. The Thebans, before suffering any good whatever from us—rather, while the offences were still, as it were, in our hands—not only did not come to the Piraeus when the Lacedaemonians bade them, but even, when the tyranny was established, which, had it lasted a little longer, the city could no longer have withstood, proved themselves the best of all toward us. For, offering their own city as a home and a friend, they made it possible to dwell there without penalty or grief—for 442. Archinus, Thrasybulus, and the rest, who daily became many; and yet they knew that they did these things not without danger from the Lacedaemonians. Then, by Zeus, those who were kindly disposed toward us in the midst of such calamity, and before knowing what they would ever afterward obtain from you, having begun such intimacy and friendship—shall we fear that these, freed from the Lacedaemonians through us, will stir up some trouble? Or excesses beyond those men's? Surely we ought to expect the opposite, according to the reckonings at least.

But since I have come to this point, I would gladly inquire, men of Athens, concerning the Lacedaemonians, with which party it is well to have sided with them. With the men from the Piraeus? But they were driven into exile through those men, and, when they tried to return, those men again opposing, made their attempt. But with those from the city? But they have perished, so far as those men's part went, having been handed over to the people. But by the good fortune of the city and by good counsel both parties are safe and have suffered no further harm. Again, then, I shall ask concerning the Thebans, with which party it is not worthwhile to aid them. With the men from the Piraeus? But—not to say it was through the Thebans—setting out from Thebes they seized Phyle; and having seized it, they became masters of their later good fortune and of what they desired. But with those from the city? But through this return they have been freed from ill will and disorder toward their own people, and have sworn to judge the same men enemies and friends. The Lacedaemonians, then, are shown to be enemies of both, and the Thebans friends of both. This has been judged long ago, and not today for the first time; and the present moment is most critical, in which we must put an end to all this for all. What remains, then, but to carry the matter through to completion together with the Thebans and not to leave the rank—which brings disgrace even to private men—nor to do the deed of deserters, changing sides and running away from affairs that stand at the very end? For this is like as if a man, contending in boxing or some such thing, should come eagerly as far as the prizes, and then, when the matter had been worked out for him, and when he ought already to take 443. the crown, should suddenly assign himself to the losers. "Man, do you throw it away when you have it?" "Yes," he says. "But the Thebans will inherit the glory, by Zeus, if we are left out." But they have taken up the war. Let them, then, become an appendage, and let us take up the championship. And indeed it is surely no less glorious to help those who summon than to summon those who will help. For the greater do not take refuge with the lesser, but the meaner have need of the greater. Therefore, of the outcomes, the glory belongs to these latter. And I marvel if anyone thinks it shameful for the city to share in the victory and the successes, but counts it honourable to take the rank of the misfortunes and the defeat, and is ashamed to conquer with others, but thinks he will be a partner in a fine and splendid figure by inheriting another's calamity. But if, because the greater part has already been worked out by the Thebans, we shall on this account shrink back, we shall suffer the opposite of what we ought. For now, as if having cut down the forest and cleared it in advance, they have made the road easy and ready for us, and, having enjoyed the troubles and the difficulties by themselves, have kept for us the glory at the end—than which there is no rarer good fortune, than justly to procure one's own good repute through what others have toiled at. And it is only, I think, to those who say that we have refrained from exacting our penalty from the Lacedaemonians that these words can be addressed. For if they make it the Thebans' deed and say it is nothing to do with us, how do they say that we have exacted the penalty? For it is plain that they would have paid it to the Thebans, but still owe it to us. Well, then, if we ourselves through our own means had punished them, someone might have said it was enough; but, since the Thebans are the conquerors, there is no taking refuge in saying it suffices. For this very thing would be utterly monstrous, if the Thebans, having come into enmity with them, were able to exact a recent penalty, but we, being who we are, shall not do this same thing, long since owed to us. And in general do not think that, if a man wins at Olympia over one already worn down by another, the crown holds for him a lesser honour, 444. nor that he is any the less proclaimed victor because someone prepared the victory in part for him; rather reckon this: if you had fought this very battle together with the Thebans, would it not have been shameful and treacherous to run away the next day and array yourselves with the Lacedaemonians? And indeed you would have fought together eagerly, had anyone summoned you then at once. The reproach is the same now too, if you are led astray. For you will be seen acting contrary not to this battle only, but to many others in time past.

And indeed I would not myself advise you either to stand aside and out of the way from both, but, if one may say so, rather to side with the Lacedaemonians than with neither. For in the one case you will say that you pity the Lacedaemonians while wronging the Thebans; but thus you will neither keep faith with the Thebans nor gain these as friends, and will win the ugly reputation of idleness, which it befits no men more to shun than you. Why? Because, first, having kept clear of all reproaches, from this you stand farthest off, and there is an old saying that you are the keenest of all both to discern the best and to do it—which is plain from the decrees and the contests which in all time you have carried through. Then there is among you, as I think, alone, a law that has made indictments for idleness, that no one may be at leisure out of season nor be careless, nor call sluggishness "freedom from trouble." And that you yourselves should be seen publicly liable to the very things you have forbidden to private men is the extreme of evils. For there is also this. If the Lacedaemonians are able to recover, you not having stood with the Thebans, they are not present where it was fitting to bring them, nor where one ought to be zealous to advance them; but if the Thebans prevail, it is better that the name come to you than to those who would have conquered even without you. Is it not a terrible thing, then, to wipe the Lacedaemonians out of Greece? Quite so—whenever they come into our power and hand over their city, as you once did to them. But if they press on, why must we bewail this? Why must we recall their vote, which 445. they cast when we were not using arms, then, and not before? Then shall we use arms against those whom we ourselves would save by a vote? "By Zeus, reasonably—that we may save them by the vote." For they must come into the same fortune, if indeed they shall receive back from us the same vote. Furthermore, this argument is even contrary to the help on behalf of which these men speak. For just as, if nothing remained, but it were only a time for a vote, we should have to save them, since we had taken sufficient vengeance; so now we must put them down and overcome them, since they are seen holding out. For this benevolence, then, I pray that the time may come; but I say that we must not be knocked off our present affairs by speciousness of phrases, nor let the Lacedaemonians go when they are struck down—men who, if they escape you, will not afterward be caught. By Zeus, at what price would you once have bought it, when you were ruled by them and outraged by the tyrants, that affairs should come round to such an occasion and such a grip fall to you? I, for one, would have bought it at the cost even of my safety. But if anyone holds the name of the Lacedaemonians or the sacredness of their land in reverence, and it seems to him a terrible and grievous thing that the land by the Eurotas should make trial of an enemy invasion, this Eleusis is no less honoured than the places among them, the Thriasian plain, Acharnae, all the other places that have been cut up ten thousand times. Let this, then, console him, and he will bear it more easily. For surely we shall not assign devastation to the Lacedaemonians, while quiet, while we are ravaged, is laid up for us—as if for Attica it were the custom to be destroyed, but for their land it were granted as some privilege and honour to be alone exempt from the evils of war. But if any land had to be unscathed by these, it ought to be ours. For this is the land that first bore fruits and shared them with the Greeks, not with the Lacedaemonians only; and the god has called this the mother-city of fruits, not the land of the Lacedaemonians; and all the other divine titles that are conferred upon it by all men belong to this land, not to the Lacedaemonians'; and through this land and its inhabitants the land of the others has remained unravaged.

446. And it is surely more just, O Demeter, that we, being Athenians, should protect our own than the affairs of the Lacedaemonians.

I was pleased that someone made mention of Heracles and the children of Heracles, as though these things had been done as a service to the Lacedaemonians and not far rather to the Thebans—unless they make Iolaus a Spartan too. And I marvel that they did not add Oedipus, that we received him, and refer this too to the honour of the Lacedaemonians. But I well know that both these and many more than these would have been done by you in common with the Thebans, if such occasions had occurred. And it does not escape me that each of these present things too was once unaccomplished, but nevertheless each came to pass in its own season. Yet to none of those before has there fallen such an occasion as that of these present deeds. For now all the affairs of the Greeks rest upon you. The Thebans remain faithful, though they have succeeded, and the Lacedaemonians have withdrawn. And it is in your power at once to keep faith with the Thebans, and, exacting justice from those who warred upon you, to stand at the head of the rest of Greece in safety for the future, together with showing all men the noblest things concerning the city—how it handles those who plotted against it, and how it deals to the end with those who began some benefaction. I almost say that you will not even be able to appear humane, unless you first become harsh. For if, prosecuting the war to the utmost and taking the men, the city, the possessions, you then save them, having the power to use them however you wish, then the Lacedaemonians will perceive your humanity by the occasion, even though they are not the sort to perceive their benefactors. Then together all men will judge you both brave and just. Remember, men of Athens, the calamity in Sicily. Then these Lacedaemonians, present with the Syracusans who had conquered not by a little but so as to have destroyed all our ships and taken arms and bodies, some in the sea, some on the land, and to lack nothing of what they could have prayed for—what did they do, 446. seeing us fleeing on foot and having left behind not a few wounded? Did they help, or change sides? No indeed—they did not stand off until the generals surrendered themselves and the army to them. And then they killed some, and handled the others as seemed good to them; and I have not added that there was a treaty between them and us, which they made when they recovered the prisoners. Well then, whenever now too, as we advance with the Thebans, they hand themselves over to us in their turn and come to that state to which they then brought Nicias, then let us not imitate them, but surpass them, keeping our magnanimity; but before that let us not be in haste, lest we change our minds. I think, too, that we must look to this: that we do not, men of Athens, turn the Thebans toward one whom we do not wish—shall I say it plainly?—the King. For there is no way they will keep quiet if they fail of us, but they will go to some other; and this other might prove to be that one. For where now they need you against the Lacedaemonians, how shall they not need the King against you and the Lacedaemonians together? But indeed, if this comes to pass, how shall we say we have deliberated nobly or justly about the Greeks, having so plainly brought the barbarian against them? Then the Lacedaemonians are in a recess of the Peloponnese and clever to seek always their own advantage, but Attica lies exposed, on the one side to the Thebans, and from the sea to the King; and in the ancient expedition all the toil and the wear and tear fell here. Let us not, then, by pitying the Lacedaemonians out of season, bring round an untimely war upon the city and upon the Greeks; but let us endure rather to become champions of the war against the Lacedaemonians than, having rid those men of their troubles, ourselves be held fast by troubles and unbearable evils. This, then, is my view about these matters; and may I come into the power of the Lacedaemonians, if I have said anything out of goodwill toward the Thebans and not purely on your behalf in all things.