Funeral Oration

But though I have been led to utter this lament over Greece as a whole, it behoves us to remember, in public as in private, those men[*](The speaker returns to the story of Athens after Aegospotami—the tyranny of the Thirty and the democratic opposition in the Peiraeus, 404-403 B.C. For the whole series of events see the General Introduction and Chronological Summary.) who, shunning slavery, fighting for the right, and rallying to the cause of democracy, incurred the hostility of all and returned to the Peiraeus; compelled by no law, but induced by their nature; imitating in fresh encounters the ancient valor of their ancestors;