Since then we
have been found in the ranks of your enemies; but this was your fault,
not ours. Who drove us into the arms of Athens, when we were hard
pressed by the tyranny of Thebes? We joined the Athenian alliance at
your bidding; they defended us against our enemies, and admitted us to
the rights of Athenian citizenship. We were bound, therefore, by every
tie of honour and duty to stand by them, whether their cause was just
or unjust.
"What, then, is the meaning of your question, whether we have done you
or your allies any service during this war? If you ask as foes, how
can you claim any service? And if you ask as friends, you have done us
bitter wrong, by attacking us unprovoked.
"The Thebans seized our city in time of peace, and at a holy season,
and we were justified by the laws of nature and of nations in wreaking
vengeance upon them. It may seem to your interest to pay court to them
now; but think how different was our conduct from theirs when the
Persian was at our doors, threatening slavery to us all. We were among
the few who obeyed the call of honour, while Thebes and all the other
towns of Boeotia took sides with the Barbarian.
"Hitherto Sparta has been called the glass of honour in Greece. What,
then, will men say, if Spartan judges are guilty of blotting Plataea
out of the map of Greece, and of the judicial murder of her citizens?
Strange, indeed, and terrible has been the fate of our city, both now
and in the past.
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