Antidosis

Therefore it was that, because of the reputation which this conduct gave him, many of the cities which had no love for Athens used to welcome him with gates thrown wide; and he, in turn, never set up any disturbance in them, but just as he found them governed when he entered their gates, so he left them when he passed out.

And now to sum up all this: In other times many calamities were wont to be visited upon the Hellenes, but, under his leadership, no one can point to cities devastated, governments overthrown, men murdered or driven into exile, or any other of those ills that are irreparable.[*](Cf. Isoc. 12.259.) Nay, so complete was the respite from such misfortunes in his day that, so far back as we can remember, he is the only general under whom no complaint was raised against Athens by the other Hellenes.

And surely you ought to find your ideal of a good general, not in one who by a single stroke of good fortune has attained, like Lysander,[*](He happened to be in command of the Spartan forces when the Athenian empire crumpled at the battle of Aegospotami.) a success which it has been the lot of no other man to achieve, but one who, though loaded with many difficult responsibilities of all sorts, has always discharged them with honesty and wisdom. And just this has been the fortune of Timotheus.