Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 1.djvu/166

 50 SPEECH OF THE ATHENIANS [l experience. They thought that their words would sway the Lacedaemonians in the direction of peace. So they came and said that, if they might be allowed, they too would like to address the people. The Lacedaemonians invited them to come forward, and they spoke as follows : — 73 ' We were not sent here to argue with your allies, but on a special mission ; observing, however, that no small outcry has arisen against us, we have come forward, not to answer the accusations which they bring (for you are not judges before whom either we or they have to plead), but to prevent you from lending too ready an ear to their bad advice and so deciding wrongly about a very serious question. We propose also, in reply to the wider charges which are raised against us, to show that what we have acquired we hold rightfully and that our city is not to be despised. 'Of the ancient deeds handed down by tradition and _, ^ ., . which no eye of any one who hears us memory of their ser- ever saw, why should we Speak? But vices in the Persian of the Persian War, and other events "^' which you yourselves remember, speak we must, ** although we have brought them forward so often that the repetition of them is disagreeable to us*. When we faced those perils we did so for the common benefit : in the solid good you shared, and of the glory, whatever good there may be in that, we would not be wholly deprived. Our words are not designed to deprecate hostility, but to set forth in evidence the character of the city with which, unless you are very careful, you will soon be involved in war. We tell you that we, first and alone, dared to engage with the Barbarian at Marathon, and that when he came again, being too weak to defend ourselves by land, we and our whole people embarked on shipboard and shared with the other Hellenes in the victory of " Or, ' although it may be disagreeable to you to hear what we are always bringing forward.'