The fact is that if any of those who are accustomed to address you had spoken in a manner worthy of the state, I should strictly have held my peace; but now, since I see that they are either seconding the demands of the enemy, or opposing them but feebly, or have kept silent altogether, I have risen to set forth my own views on this subject, feeling that it would be disgraceful if by keeping the place appropriate to my years I should allow the state to pass measures unworthy of itself.

Moreover, I think that although on other matters it may be proper for men of my age to keep silent, yet on the question of war it is fitting that they most of all should give counsel who will also have the greatest part in the dangers, especially since the power to judge of what ought to be done is an endowment common to all of us.

For if it were established that older men always know what is best, while the younger are never correct in their views, it would be right to exclude us from giving counsel; but since it is not by the number of our years that we differ in wisdom from one another, but by our natural endowments and by our cultivation of them, why should you not make trial of both the young and the old, in order that you may be in a position to choose from all courses which are proposed that which is the most expedient?

I am amazed at those who think that we are fit to command ships of war and to lead armies in the field,Archidamus had commanded Spartan armies in 370 and 367. See Xen. Hell. 6.4.17 and vii. 1. 28. where bad judgement on our part would involve the state in many grave disasters, and yet do not think that we ought to express our views on matters which you are about to decide, wherein if we proved to be right we should benefit you all, while if, on the other hand, we failed of your assent we should ourselves perhaps suffer in reputation, but should not in any way impair the commonwealth.

It is not, I assure you, because I am ambitious to be an orator, nor because I am prepared to change my former mode of life that I have spoken as I have about these things, but because I want to urge you not to reject any time of life, but to seek among all ages for the man who can offer good advice on the problems which now confront us;

for never since we have dwelt in Sparta has any war or any peril come upon us in which so much has been at stake as in this question which we are now assembled to discuss. For while in times past we fought that we might have dominion over the other states, now we must fight that we ourselves may not be forced to do their bidding—which is proof of a free spirit, to preserve which no hardship on earth is too great to endure, not for us alone, but for all others as well who have not renounced every claim to manhood but still make even slight pretensions to courage.

As for myself, at any rate, if I may speak my own mind, I had rather die this moment for not complying with the dictates of the foe than live many times my allotted span of life at the price of voting what the Thebans demand. For I should feel disgraced, I who am descended from Heracles,The Spartan kings claimed descent from Heracles Isoc. 4.62. who am the son of the ruling king and likely myself to attain to this honor,Archidamus became king after the death of Agesilaus in 361 B.C. if I did not strive with all the strength that is in me to prevent this territory, which our fathers left to us, from becoming the possession of our slaves.

And I expect you also to share my feelings when you reflect that, while until the present day we seem to have been unfortunate in our contest with the Thebans,Since the battle of Leuctra. and to have been overcome in body because of the mistakes of our leader,Cleombrotus the king was partly blamed for the Spartan defeat at Leuctra. yet up to this moment we possess our spirits unconquered;

but that if through fear of the dangers which now threaten us we relinquish anything that is ours, we shall justify the boasts of the Thebans, and erect against ourselves a trophy far more imposing and conspicuous than that which was raised at Leuctra; for the one will stand as a memorial of our ill-fortune; the other, of our abject spirit. Let no man, therefore, persuade you to fasten such a disgrace upon the state.

And yet our alliesEspecially the Corinthians. See Introduction. have been only too zealous in advising you that you must give up Messene and make peace. Because of this they merit your indignation far more than those who revoltedThe Arcadians had joined the Thebans in invading Sparta. The Argives, Eleans, and Achaeans had also forsaken Sparta and gone over partly or wholly to the Thebans. from you at the beginning. For the latter, when they had forsaken your friendship, destroyed their own cities, plunging them into civil strife and massacres and vicious forms of government.Such disturbances and changes of government took place about this time in Arcadia, Argos, Sicyon, Elis, and Phlius. See Xen. Hell. 7.1-4. By vicious forms of government Archidamus probably refers to the democracies which in various places had been set up instead of the earlier oligarchies. These men, on the other hand, come here to inflict injury upon us;

for they are trying to persuade us to throw away in one brief hour the glory which our forefathers amid manifold dangers during the course of seven hundred yearsA round number for the period between 1104 B.C., the traditional date when the sons of Heracles took Sparta, and the date of the present oration, 366 B.C. acquired and bequeathed to us—a disaster more humiliating to Lacedaemon and more terrible than any other they could ever have devised.