History of the Peloponnesian War

"We should not have asked permission to make this speech, if the Plataeans had briefly answered the question, and had not turned upon us and accused us, at the same time setting up a long defence of themselves on matters foreign to the issue and on which no charge whatever had been made against them, and praising themselves where nobody had blamed them. But as it is, we must answer their charges and expose their self-praise, in order that neither our baseness nor their good repute may help them, but that you may hear the truth about us both before you decide. "The quarrel we had with them began in this way:

after we had settled the rest of Boeotia and had occupied Plataea and other places of which we got possession by driving out a mixed population,[*](Strabo mentions Pelasgians, Thracians, Hyantians.) these Plataeans disdained to submit to our leadership, as had been agreed upon at first, and separating themselves from the rest of the Boeotians and breaking away from the traditions of our fathers went over to the Athenians as soon as an attempt was made to force them into obedience, and in conjunction with the Athenians did us much harm, for which they also suffered in return.