For the People of Megalopolis

​Both sides seem to me to be in error, men of Athens—both those who have spoken on behalf of the Arcadians and those on behalf of the Lacedaemonians. For as if they had come from either of the two parties, and were not of your city, to whom both are sending embassies, they accuse and slander one another. But while this was the proper task of those who have arrived, to speak impartially on behalf of the public affairs and to consider what is best for you without rivalry was the duty of those who claim to advise you here.

​But as it is, for my part, if one were to take away from them their being known and their speaking in the Attic dialect, I think many of them would be considered by you to be Arcadians, and others to be Lacedaemonians. I see, indeed, how difficult it is to advise what is best; for since you have been mutually deceived, some desiring this and others that, if anyone attempts to propose a middle course and then you do not wait to understand it, he will please neither party and will be slandered by both.

​Nevertheless, I will rather choose myself, if indeed I should suffer this, to be thought to talk nonsense than, contrary to what I believe is best for the state, to allow certain men to deceive you. The other matters, then, I will speak of later, if it is your wish; but I will begin with what is agreed upon by all, which I think is the best way to instruct you.

​Surely, not a single person would deny that it is to the advantage of the state that both the Lacedaemonians and these Thebans here should be weak. Now affairs are in such a critical state, if one must judge by the speeches often delivered before you, that the Thebans will become weak through the rebuilding of Orchomenus, Thespiae, and Plataea, but the Lacedaemonians, if they bring Arcadia under their control and destroy Megalopolis, will become powerful once more.

​We must therefore take care lest we permit the latter to become formidable and great before the former have been made small, and lest the Lacedaemonians should secretly become greater than it is advantageous for the Thebans to be made smaller. For we would certainly not say that we wish to exchange the Lacedaemonians as rivals in place of the Thebans, nor is this what we are striving for, but rather that neither side may be able to do us any wrong; for in this way we would enjoy the greatest security.

​But, by Zeus, we will say that these things ought to be so, yet that it is shocking if we choose as allies those against whom we were drawn up at Mantinea, and then assist them against those with whom we then shared dangers. I also hold this view, but with the additional proviso that the other side must also be willing to act justly.

​If, therefore, all are willing to keep peace, we will not assist the Megalopolitans, for there will be no need; so there will be nothing at all contrary to our relations with those who fought by our side, and some are already our allies, as they say, while others will be added now.

​And what else could we desire? But if they act unjustly and think they must wage war, then if we only have to deliberate on this point—whether we ought to abandon Megalopolis to the Lacedaemonians or not—although it is not just, I for my part agree to let it go and offer no opposition to those who shared the same dangers; but if you all know that, if they capture this city, they will march against Messene, let anyone of those who are now harsh toward the Megalopolitans tell me what he will then advise us to do.

​But no one will say. Indeed, you all know that, whether these men advise it or not, we must bring aid, both because of the oaths we have sworn to the Messenians and because of the advantage of this city being inhabited. Consider then within yourselves which is the more honorable and generous starting point for not permitting the Lacedaemonians to commit injustice: the one on behalf of Megalopolis or the one on behalf of Messene.