Plataicus

And not content with their other base misrepresentations, they now say that they pursued this course for the common good of the allies. And yet what they ought to have done, inasmuch as there is an Hellenic Council[*](Athens' Second Confederacy, organized in 377 B.C. For this Council cf. § 18 above.) here and your city is more competent than Thebes to advise prudent measures, is, not to be here now to defend the acts they have already committed, but to have come to you for consultation before they took any such action.

But as it is, having now pillaged our possessions, acting alone, they have come here to give a share of their disrepute to all their allies. And that disrepute, if you are wise, you will shun, since it is far more honorable to compel them to emulate your scrupulousness than that you allow yourselves to be persuaded to share in the lawlessness of these people, whose principles are wholly alien to those of the rest of mankind.

For I presume that it is clear to all that it is incumbent upon the wise, in time of war to strive in every way to get the better of the enemy, but when peace is made, to regard nothing as of greater importance than their oaths and their covenants.

The Thebans, however, in the former circumstances, in all their embassies would plead the cause of "freedom" and "independence"; but now that they believe they have secured license for themselves, disregarding everything else, they have the effrontery to speak in defense of their private gain and of their own acts of violence,

and they assert that it is to the advantage of their allies that the Thebans should have our country—fools that they are, not to know that no advantage ever accrues to those who unjustly seek greedy gain; on the contrary, many a people that have unjustly coveted the territory of others have with justice brought into the greatest jeopardy their own.

But one thing the Thebans will not be able to say—that they remain loyal to their associates, though there is reason to fear that we, having recovered our country, will desert to the Lacedaemonians; for you will find, Athenians, that we have twice been besieged[*](By the Thebans in 427 (Thucydides iii. 52) and again in 373 B.C.) and forced to surrender because of our friendship for you, while the Thebans often have wronged this city.

It would be a laborious task to recount their treacheries in the past, but when the Corinthian war broke out because of their overbearing conduct and the Lacedaemonians had marched against them, although the Thebans had been saved by you, they were so far from showing their gratitude for this service that, when you had put an end to the war, they abandoned you and entered into the alliance with the Lacedaemonians.

The people of Chios, of Mytilen, and of Byzantium remained loyal, but the Thebans, although they dwelt in a city of such importance, did not have the fortitude even to remain neutral, but were guilty of such cowardice and baseness as to give their solemn oath to join the Lacedaemonians in attacking you, the saviors of their city. For this they were punished by the gods, and, after the Cadmea was captured, they were forced to take refuge here in Athens. By this they furnished the crowning proof of their perfidy;

for when they had again been saved by your power and were restored to their city, they did not remain faithful for a single instant, but immediately sent ambassadors to Lacedaemon, showing themselves ready to be slaves and to alter in no respect their former agreements with Sparta. Why need I speak at greater length? For if the Lacedaemonians had not ordered them to take back their exiles and exclude the murderers, nothing would have hindered them from taking the field as allies of those who had injured them, against you their benefactors.

And these Thebans, who have recently behaved in such fashion toward your city and in times past have been guilty of betraying Greece as a whole,[*](In the Persian Wars.) have seen fit to demand for themselves forgiveness for their evil deeds willingly committed and so monstrous, yet to us, for acts done under compulsion, they think no mercy ought to be shown, but they, true Thebans as they are, have the effrontery to reproach others for siding with the Lacedaemonians, when they, as we all know, have for the longest time been in servitude to them and have fought more zealously for Spartan domination than for their own security!

In what invasion into your country of all that have ever been made have they failed to take part? Who, more consistently than they, have been your enemies and ill-wishers? In the Decelean War[*](The Decelean War is the name given to the latter part (413-404 B.C.) of the Peloponnesian War when a Spartan force occupied the Attic post, Decelea, in 413 B.C.) were they not authors of more mischief than the other invaders? When misfortune befell you,[*](A reference to the Athenian naval defeat at Aegospotami, in 405 B.C.) did not they alone of the allies[*](This is an exaggeration; not only the Thebans, but the Corinthians and other Peloponnesians, voted for the destruction of Athens, but Sparta refused; cf. Xen. Hell. 2.2.19-20.) vote that your city should be reduced to slavery and its territory be abandoned to pasturage as was the plain of Crisa,[*](After the first Sacred War, at the end of the sixth century B.C., the plain of Crisa, between Delphi and the Corinthian Gulf, was declared holy ground and was dedicated to Apollo.)

so that if the Lacedaemonians had been of the same opinion as the Thebans, there would have been nothing to prevent the authors of the salvation of all the Greeks[*](In the Persian Wars.) from being themselves enslaved by the Greeks and from plunging into the most grievous misfortunes? And yet what benefaction of their own could they adduce great enough to wipe out the hatred caused by these wrongs which you would justly feel toward them?

Accordingly, to these Thebans no plea is left, such is the magnitude of their crimes, and to those who wish to speak on their behalf only this—that Boeotia is now fighting in defense of your country, and that, if you put an end to your friendship with them, you will be acting to the detriment of your allies; for it will be a matter of great consequence if the city of Thebes takes the side of the Lacedaemonians.

My opinion is, however, that it is neither profitable to the allies that the weaker should be in servitude to the stronger (in past times, in fact, we went to war to protect the weak), nor that the Thebans will be so mad as to desert the alliance and hand over their city to the Lacedaemonians; this is not because I have confidence in the character of the Thebans, but because I know that they are well aware that one of two fates necessarily awaits them—either resisting, to die and to suffer such cruelties as they have inflicted, or else, going into exile, to be in want and deprived of all their hopes.

Well then, are their relations with their fellow-citizens agreeable, some of whom they have put to death and others they have banished and robbed of their property? Or are they on friendly terms with the other Boeotians, whom they not only attempt to rule without warrant of justice, but have also in some instances razed their walls and have dispossessed others of their territory?

But assuredly they cannot again take refuge in your city either, Athenians, the city which they will be discovered to have so consistently betrayed. It is inconceivable, therefore, that they will care to get into a quarrel with you over an alien city[*](That is, Plataea.) and on that account so rashly and so inevitably to lose their own; on the contrary, in all their dealings with you they will behave in much more seemly fashion, and the more they fear for themselves the more they will cultivate your friendship.

Indeed they have proved to you how people of such character should be treated by their conduct in the matter of Oropus[*](Cf. § 20.); for when they hoped that they would have license to do as they pleased they did not treat you as allies, but as ruthlessly wronged you as they would have dared to act against their deadliest enemies. But as soon as you in requital voted to exclude them from the peace,[*](374 B.C., between Athens and Sparta.) they left off their arrogance and came to you in more humble mood than we Plataeans are in now.

If, then, some of their orators seek to frighten you, arguing that there is danger of the Thebans' changing sides and going over to the enemy, you must not credit what they say; for they are constrained by compulsions so peremptory that they would much sooner submit to your government than tolerate the alliance with the Lacedaemonians.

But even if they were likely to act altogether otherwise, not even then, in my opinion, does it become you to have greater regard for the city of the Thebans than for your oaths and treaties, when you remember, first, that it is your ancient tradition to fear, not dangers, but acts of infamy aid dishonor; next, that it usually happens that victory in war is not for those who destroy cities by violence, but for those who govern Greece in a more scrupulous and clement manner.[*](Cf., however, Isoc. 12.185.)

And this could be proved by numerous instances; but as for those which have occurred in our own time at any rate, who does not know that the Lacedaemonians shattered your power,[*](At Aegospotami, 405 B.C.) which was thought to be irresistible—although at first they possessed slight resources for the war waged at sea, but they won the Greeks over to their side because of that general belief—and that you in turn took the leadership away from them, although you depended on a city without walls and in evil plight,[*](A reference to the beginning of the Corinthian War, 395 B.C. Athens had been compelled by Sparta to destroy her Long Walls and fortifications after her defeat in 404 B.C.) but possessed Justice as your ally?