History of the Peloponnesian War

"As for the last injuries which you say that you received, namely, that we came against your city in time of peace and at a holy time of the month, we are of opinion that neither in this point did we act more wrongly than you.

If, indeed, we came against your city by our own design, and fought, and ravaged the land as enemies, we are guilty. But if men who were the first among you, both in property and family, wishing to stop you from your foreign connexion, and restore you to your hereditary principles common to all the Boeotians, voluntarily called us to their aid, how are we guilty? [*]( Retorting the remark of the Plataeans, ch. 55. 5,οὐχ οἱ ἑπόμενοι αἴτιοι—ἀλλ᾽ οἱ ἄγοντες.) For it is those who lead that are the transgressors, rather than those who follow.

But neither did they do wrong, in our judgment, nor did we; but being citizens, like yourselves, and having more at stake, by opening their walls to us and introducing us into their city in a friendly, not in a hostile, manner, they wished the bad among you no longer [*]( i. e. understanding χείρους again after μᾶλλον, as Poppo explains it. Bloomfield supposes that μᾶλλον here assumes the nature of an adjective; and thus μᾶλλον γενέσθαι will mean, to be uppermost, to have the upper hand,— to be [in power] rather than others. But the passage which he quotes, ch. 82. 2, as an instance of such a usage, is not, I think, sufficiently parallel to justify this interpretation.) to become worse, and the good to have their deserts; being reformers of your principles, and not depriving the state of your persons, but restoring you to your kinsmen; making you foes to no one, but friends alike to all.