Panathenaicus

how in his desire to restore to power the son of Oedipus, his own son-in-law, he lost a great number of his Argive soldiers in the battle and saw all of his captains slain, though saving his own life in dishonor, and, when he failed to obtain a truce and was unable to recover the bodies of his dead for burial, he came as a suppliant to Athens, while Theseus still ruled the city, and implored the Athenians not to suffer such men to be deprived of sepulture nor to allow ancient custom and immemorial law to be set at naught—that ordinance which all men respect without fail, not as having been instituted by our human nature, but as having been enjoined by the divine power?[*](See Isoc. 4.55, note.)

When our people heard this plea, they let no time go by but at once dispatched ambassadors to Thebes to advise her people that they be more reverent in their deliberations regarding the recovery of the dead and that they render a decision which would be more lawful than that which they had previously made, and to hint to them also that the Athenians would not countenance their transgression of the common law of all Hellas.

Having heard this message, those who were then in authority at Thebes came to a decision which was in harmony neither with the opinion which some people have of them nor with their previous resolution; on the contrary, after both stating the case for themselves in reasonable terms and denouncing those who had invaded their country, they conceded to our city the recovery of the dead.

And let no one suppose that I fail to realize that I am giving a different version of these same events from that which I shall be found to have written in the Panegyricus. But I do not think that anyone of those who can grasp the meaning of these events is so obsessed by stupidity and envy as not to commend me and consider me discreet for the manner in which I have treated them then and now.[*](The version here is less offensive to the Thebans, perhaps because Athens is now cultivating friendlier relations with Thebes.)

On this topic, then, I know that I have written wisely and expediently. But how pre-eminent our city stood in war at that time—for it was with the desire to show this that I discussed what happened at Thebes—is, I consider, clearly revealed to all by the circumstances which compelled the king of the Argives to become a suppliant of Athens and which so disposed the authorities at Thebes towards us

that they chose of their own accord to accommodate themselves to the words dispatched to them by Athens more than to the laws ordained by the divine power. For our city would not have been in a position to settle properly any of those questions had she not stood far above the others both in reputation and in power.

Although I have many noble things to tell of in the conduct of our ancestors, I am debating in my mind in what manner to present them. Indeed I am more concerned about this than about any other thing. For I come now to that part of my subject which I reserved for the last—that part in which I promised to show that our ancestors excelled the Spartans much more in their wars and battles than in all other respects.[*](For the comparison of the early wars of Sparta and Athens, 175-198, cf. Isoc. 4.51-70.)

What I say on this topic will be counter to the opinions of the majority, but in equal degree it will appeal to the rest as the truth. A moment ago I was undecided whether I should first review the wars and battles of the Spartans or our own. Now, however, I elect to speak first of the perils and the battles of the Spartans, in order that I may close the discussion of this subject with struggles more honorable and more righteous.