Panathenaicus

For I think that I now see the point from which I strayed. I was speaking in reply to those who reproach us with the misfortunes of the Melians and of villages with like populations, not meaning that we had done no wrong in these instances, but trying to show that those who are the idols of these speakers have laid waste more and greater cities than the Athenians have done, in which connection I discussed the virtues of Agamemnon and Menelaus and Nestor, saying nothing that was not true, though passing, mayhap, the bounds of moderation.

But I did this, supposing that it would be apparent that there could be no greater crime than that of those who dared lay waste the cities which bred and reared such great men, about whom even now one might say many noble things. But it is perhaps foolish to linger upon a single point, as if there were any lack, as if there were not, on the contrary, a superabundance of things to say about the cruelty and the harshness of the Lacedaemonians.

For the Lacedaemonians were not satisfied with wronging these cities and men of this character, but treated in the same way those who had set out with them from the same country, joined with them in the same expedition, and shared with them the same perils[*](In the Trojan War.)—I mean the Argives and the Messenians. For they determined to plunge these also into the very same misfortunes which had been visited upon their former victims.[*](The distinction—not altogether clear—is between the older and the later inhabitants.) They did not cease laying siege to the Messenians until they had driven them from their territory, and with the same object they are even now making war upon the Argives.[*](For the conquest of Messene see Isoc. 6.26 ff. The Spartans and Argives were almost always at war. See Isoc. 5.51.)

Furthermore, it would be strange if, having spoken of these wrongs, I failed to mention their treatment of the Plataeans. It was on the soil of Plataea that the Lacedaemonians had encamped with us and with the other allies, drawn up for battle against our enemies;[*](The battle of Plataea was the final, decisive battle of the Persian Wars.) there they had offered sacrifices to the deities worshipped by the Plataeans;[*](See Thuc. 2.71-72.)

and there we had won freedom, not only for the Hellenes who fought with us, but also for those who were compelled to be on the side of the Persians,[*](The Greek cities on the Asiatic seaboard, which had been subject to Persia.) and we accomplished this with the help of the Plataeans, who alone of the Boeotians fought with us in that war.[*](The Thebans had “Medized.” The Plataeans in this battle acquitted themselves well; according to Plutarch (Plut. Arist. 20), they were awarded the meed of valor. Cf. Isoc. 14.57 ff.) And yet, after no great interval of time, the Lacedaemonians, to gratify Thebes,[*](Cf. Isoc. 14.62.) reduced the Plataeans by siege and put them all to the sword with the exception of those who had been able to escape through their lines.[*](This was done by King Archidamus, who in the course of the Peloponnesian War besieged and took Plataea, 427 b.c. The walls of the town were razed, the women and children sold into slavery, the defenders slain, excepting some two hundred who escaped and found refuge in Athens. See Thuc. 3.57 ff.) Little did Athens resemble Sparta in the treatment of these peoples;

for, while the Lacedaemonians did not scruple to commit such wrongs both against the benefactors of Hellas and against their own kinsmen,[*](Fellow-Dorians.) our ancestors, on the other hand, gave the surviving Messenians a home in Naupactus[*](On the Corinthian gulf. For this event see Thuc. 1.103) and adopted the Plataeans who had escaped with their lives as Athenian citizens and shared with them all the privileges which they themselves enjoyed.[*](See Isoc. 4, note.) So that if we had nothing else to say about these two cities, it is easy to judge from these instances what was the character of each and which of the two laid waste more and greater cities.

I perceive that my feelings are changing to the opposite of those which I described a little while ago. For then I fell into a state of doubt and perplexity and forgetfulness, but now I realize clearly that I am not keeping the mildness of speech which I had when I began to write my discourse; on the contrary, I am venturing to discuss matters about which I did not think that I should speak, I am more aggressive in temper than is my wont, and I am losing control over some of the things which I utter because of the multitude of things which rush into my mind to say.

Since, however, the impulse has come to me to speak frankly and I have removed the curb from my tongue, and since I took a subject which is of such a character that it is neither honorable nor possible to leave out the kind of facts from which it can be proved that our city has been of greater service to the Hellenes than Lacedaemon, I must not be silent either about the other wrongs which have not yet been told, albeit they have been done among the Hellenes, but must show that our ancestors have been slow pupils[*](Cf. Isoc. 12.101.) in wrong-doing, whereas the Lacedaemonians have in some respects been the first to point the way and in others have been the sole offenders.