Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/185

 THEBES AND THESPLEA. l&H as suppliants, with the tokens of misery conspicuously displayed, but also laid their case pathetically before the assembly, and in- voked aid to regain their town, of which they had been just bereft. On a question at once so touching and so full of political conse- quences, many speeches were doubtless composed and delivered, one of which has fortunately reached us ; composed by Isokrates, and perhaps actually delivered by a Platoean speaker before the public assembly. The hard fate of this interesting little com- munity is here impressively set forth; including the bitterest reproaches, stated with not a little of rhetorical exaggeration, against the multiplied wrongs done by Thebes, as well towards Athens as towards Plataea. Much of his invective is more vehe- ment than conclusive. Thus when the orator repeatedly claims for Platsea her title to autonomous existence, under the guarantee of universal autonomy sworn at the peace of Antalkidas, 1 the Thebans would doubtless reply, that at the time of that peace, Plataea was no longer in existence ; but had been extinct for forty years, and was only renovated afterwards by the Lacedaemonians for their own political purposes. And the orator intimates plainly, that the Thebans were noway ashamed of their proceeding, but came to Athens to justify it, openly and avowedly ; moreover, several of the most distinguished Athenian speakers espoused the same side. 2 That the Plataeans had cooperated with Sparta in her recent operations in Boeotia against both Athens and Thebes, was an undeniable fact ; which the orator himself can only extenu- ate by saying that they acted under constraint from a present Spartan force, but which was cited on the opposite side as a proof of their philo-Spartan dispositions, and of their readiness again to join the common enemy as soon as he presented himself. 3 The Thebans would accuse Platasa of subsequent treason to the 1 Isokrates, Or. xiv, (Plataic.) s. 11, 13, 18, 42, 46, 47, 68. 2 Isokrates, Or. xiv, (Plat.) s. 3. Et /lev ovv /J,T) Qrjflaiovf iupu/iev EK TTO.V- Tor TpoTtov napCKvaafj.EVOVf TTBI'&ELV vfiuf uf ovdev elf rjfiilf et;T)[i.apT7]Kaai, SLU (3pa%uv uv Troi7]au[i.-&a roiif /loyoi'f EKEiSr/ <5' f rovr' arvxiaf //l$o- UV, GXTTE pi /UOVOV TlfUV ElVdl TUV UJUVO. TTpOf TOVTOVf U^fl Kdl TUV flTjTOpUV rove dvvaruTuTovc, ovf urtb TUV TjpETepuv avroif OVTOI napeaKEvaaavT yupovc, etc. Compare sect. 36. 1 Isokr. Or. xiv, (Plat.) s. 12, 13, 14, 16, 28, 33, 48.