Our fathers were brought to the brink of ruin by
their valour and devotion; we, their sons, have just passed through
all the horrors of a siege, and now we are forced to plead for our
lives. Outcasts from our fatherland, spurned and rejected of all, we
are thrown upon your mercy; and much we fear that your hearts are
hardened against us.
"We adjure you, then, by the memory of those times, and of the part
which we took in the salvation of Greece, not to betray us to our
worst enemies, the Thebans. Do not win their gratitude by murder, but
ours by mercy. Forget the cold calculations of policy; think of the
everlasting infamy of such a deed. Your fathers are buried in our
land, and we have been constant in paying all honour and service to
their tombs. Will ye give up the land in which they rest to the men
[Footnote: The Thebans, who fought on the side of the Persians at
Plataea.] who are guilty of their blood? Will ye enslave those fields
which saw the triumph of Greek liberty, and dishonour the gods by
whose favour the victory was won? By your own renown, by the
conscience of Greece, by the memory of your sires, we adjure you, men
of Lacedaemon, not to do this deed.
"But it is time to make an end. If we have spoken in vain, and you are
resolved on our death, we have still one request.
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