On the Olive Stump

For you are all aware that, among the numerous troubles that have been caused by the war, the outlying districts were ravaged by the Lacedaemonians,[*](During the Peloponnesian War Pericles kept the people inside Athens, and allowed the Lacedaemonians to devastate Attica, as he knew that the strength of Athens was on the sea, not on the land. Our friendsmay refer to Boeotian and Thessalian troops which aided the Athenians in occasional attacks on the invaders. Cf. Thuc. 2.14,19,22, etc.) while the nearer were plundered by our friends; so how can it be just that I should be punished now for the disasters that then befell the city?