Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 1.djvu/347

 64-66] REPLY OF THE Til EDA NS 23 1 our own mere motion we went to your city, fought with you, and ravaged your land. But when certain of the noblest and richest of your citizens, who wished to withdraw you from a foreign alliance and to bring you back to the national institutions of Boeotia, came and invited us, wherein are we to blame? As 3'ou say yourselves, the leaders rather than the followers are the transgressors K But in our opinion, neither we nor they were really guilty. Like yourselves they were citizens, and they had a greater stake in the country than you have ; they opened their own gates and received us into their native city, not as her enemies but as her friends. They desired that the bad among you should not grow worse, and that the good should have their reward. They wanted to reform the principles of your citizens, and not to banish their persons ; they would have brought them back into a natural union with their kindred, that Plataea might be at peace with all and the enemy of none, 'And the proof that we acted in no hostile spirit is that 66 we did no harm to any one, but made At first they were a proclamation that whoever wished ^^("fy 'o join us, but to live under the national institutions "^'"' « "'^"J '1"^ ''^ upon tts, ana slew our of Boeotia should join us. You came citkms whom they had to us gladly, and, entering into an simm to spare. agreement, for a time offered no opposition ; but after- wards, when you discovered that we were few, 3'Ou turned upon us. Even allowing that we did act somewhat incon- siderately in entering your town without the consent of your whole people, still how different was your conduct and ours ! For if you had followed our example you would have used no violence, but thought only of getting us out by persuasion, whereas you broke the agreement and attacked us. Now we do not so much complain of the fate of those whom you slew in battle — for they indeed suffered by a kind of la^v — but there were others who » Cn. iii. 55 fin.