§403ἀρχῆς μηδὲν αὐτῶν συμβῆναι.
...rather that from the beginning none of these things should happen.
τίς γὰρ τῶν Ἑλλήνων λειφθήσεται, εἰ διὰ τοὺς προτέρους ἀπολωλότας οἱ μετʼ ἐκείνους ἀεὶ ταυτὸν τοῦτο πείσονται;
For who of the Greeks will be left, if on account of those who perished before, those after them will always suffer this same thing?
ὁρᾶτε δὲ κἀν τοῖς στεφανίταις ἀγῶσι τοὺς ἔξω τῶν νομίμων τρόπων μαχομένους ὅτι οὔτʼ αὐτοὺς ἐπαινοῦμεν οὔτʼ, ἄν τις ἐπαιτιάσηται, τοῖς αὐτοῖς τούτοις ἐῶμεν χρῆσθαι, ἀλλʼ ἐμμένοντας τοῖς κειμένοις οὕτως ἂν δύνωνται κρατεῖν.
And you see also in the crown-games that those who fight outside the lawful ways, we neither praise them nor, if someone accuses them, do we allow them to use these same means, but rather that remaining within the established rules they should conquer if they can.
καὶ μὴν ὅτι γʼ οἱ πρὸς ἀλλήλους τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἀγῶνες οὐ πόρρω τούτων εἰσὶν ὧν εἶπον, ἀλλʼ εἰκότως ἂν περὶ νίκης μόνης γίγνοιντο, ἡ δὲ ἀναίρεσις τοῖς φύσει πολεμίοις ἂν ὀφείλοιτο, τοῖς βαρβάροις, ὅστις ἑλληνίζειν οἶδεν οὐ μόνον τοῖς ῥήμασιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῇ γνώμῃ, συμφήσειεν ἄν.
And indeed, that the contests of the Greeks against one another are not far from these things of which I spoke, but would reasonably be only for victory, while destruction would be owed to the enemies by nature, the barbarians, anyone who knows how to be Greek not only in words but also in mind would agree.
οἶμαι δʼ, εἰ καὶ πάντων ἐχθίστους καὶ πολεμιωτάτους κρίνομεν τοὺς ἄνδρας, οὐχ οὕτω μικρά γε ἡμῖν εἶναι τὰ πεπραγμένα ὥστε προσδεῖσθαι δίκης ἔτι λοιπῆς, εἰ περὶ Λακεδαιμονίων καὶ πρὸς Λακεδαιμονίους δεῖ λέγειν.
And I think, even if we judge these men to be the most hostile and war-like of all, that our deeds are not so small for us as to still need remaining punishment, if it is necessary to speak about the Lacedaemonians and to the Lacedaemonians.
ἐγὼ γὰρ ἕως μὲν ἑώρων τριήρεις πλείους ἢ τριακοσίας ἐν τῷ Πειραιεῖ καὶ χρήματα φοιτῶντα ἑκάστου τοῦ ἔτους τόσα καὶ τόσα καὶ τὴν πλεονεξίαν αὐτῶν μέχρι τῆς Μαιώτιδος λίμνης διήκουσαν, καὶ τὰ μὲν τῇ δυνάμει, τὰ δὲ ταῖς γνώμαις δεδουλωμένους, καὶ τὴν τοῦ Ποσειδῶνος ἀρχὴν ἑαυτῶν νομίζοντας καὶ Πελοπόννησον περιπλέοντας, καὶ τὰ ἐν Σικελίᾳ καὶ Καρχηδόνι καὶ πανταχοῦ περιβλέποντας καὶ οὐδαμοῦ στῆναι δυναμένους, ἀλλὰ πάντα ἑαυτῶν ποιουμένους, ἀμφοτέρων τούτων ᾤμην καιρὸν εἶναι, καὶ μίσους καὶ φόβου, καὶ δεῖν σωφρονίσαι τὴν αὐθάδειαν αὐτῶν καὶ τὰ πράγματα εἰς τὸ ἀρχαῖον καταστῆσαι.
For as long as I saw more than three hundred triremes in the Piraeus and money coming in each year of such and such an amount, and their greed extending as far as the Maeotian Lake, and some enslaved by force, others by wills, and thinking the rule of Poseidon to be their own and sailing around the Peloponnese, and looking around at the affairs in Sicily and Carthage and everywhere, and being unable to stand anywhere, but making everything their own, I thought it was the season for both of these, both hatred and fear, and that it was necessary to chasten their arrogance and restore affairs to the ancient state.
ἀλλὰ νῦν τίς ἢ δέους ἢ φθόνου καιρός;
But now what season is there of either fear or envy?
ἢ πρὸς τί βλέποντες φιλονεικήσομεν;
Or looking to what shall we contend?
οὐ πλείους μὲν ἢ τόσας μυριάδας σωμάτων ἐν Σικελίᾳ διεφθείραμεν αὐτῶν, πάντας καταχρησάμενοι τρόπους, ἐλίπομεν δὲ οὐχ ἵππον, οὐ βέλος, οὐ ναῦν, οὐκ εἶδος συμφορᾶς οὐδέν;
Did we not destroy such and such ten thousands of their bodies in Sicily, employing all ways, and did we leave not a horse, not a missile, not a ship, no form of disaster at all?
αὗται δʼ ἕτεραι διακόσιαι τριήρεις ἔχονται, τρισχίλιοι δὲ οὑτοιὶ τὸν τῶν ἱεροσύλων ἀπολώλασι τρόπον, οἱ δὲ λοιποὶ καθʼ ἑκάστην ἡμέραν πίπτουσι τῷ λοιμῷ· πάντες δʼ ὥσπερ ἐν δικτύῳ §404συγκέκλεινται· τὰ δὲ πολλὰ καὶ λαμπρὰ ἐκεῖνα ὄναρ δὴ διαπτάμενα αὐτοῖς οἴχεται.
And here are another two hundred triremes held, and these three thousand have perished in the manner of temple-robbers, and the rest fall each day by the plague; and all, as if in a net, have been shut up; and those many and brilliant things of theirs, flying away indeed like a dream, are gone.
εἶτα τούτοις ἡμεῖς ὀργιζώμεθα;
Then shall we be angry with these?
μηδαμῶς.
By no means.
ἀνδρῶν γάρ ἐστι καθʼ ὑμᾶς τὴν φύσιν τοὺς μὲν ἀνθεστηκότας κατείργειν τοῖς ὅπλοις, τοὺς δʼ ὑποπεσόντας ἠπίως μεταχειρίζεσθαι, καὶ τοῦ νικῆσαι μαχομένους οὐκ ἐλάττω φιλοτιμίαν ἔχειν ἡγεῖσθαι τὸ καλῶς χρῆσθαι τοῖς ὑπάρχουσιν, ἄλλως τε καὶ εἰ φαυλότατοι πάντων ἐν τῷ νυνὶ χρόνῳ περὶ τοὺς Ἕλληνας γεγόνασιν, ἦν ὅτε οὐδένες τούτων βελτίους μετά γʼ ἡμᾶς.
For it is the part of men according to your nature to restrain those who resist with weapons, but to handle gently those who have fallen, and to consider it to be no less a love of honor to use well the existing circumstances than to conquer while fighting, especially if, even if they have become the basest of all at the present time among the Greeks, there was a time when none of these was better than they, at least after us.
ἀλλʼ ἂν ἐξετάζητε ὀρθῶς, οὐδαμοῦ τὰ νῦν ἐγκλήματα πρὸς τὰς τότε αὐτῶν ἀνδραγαθίας ὄντα φανήσεται καὶ μεγέθει λέγω καὶ πλήθει.
But if you examine rightly, nowhere will the present accusations appear to be equal to their bravery at that time, I mean both in magnitude and in number.
νυνὶ μέν γε Σκιώνην καὶ Μῆλον καὶ Τορώνην καὶ δύο καὶ τρεῖς ἑτέρας πόλεις ἀοίκους ἐποίησαν, τότε δὲ ἁπάσας τὰς πόλεις συνδιέσωσαν τῇ Ἑλλάδι, ἰδίᾳ μὲν πρὸς Δᾶτιν, κοινῇ δὲ μεθʼ ἡμῶν πρὸς Ξέρξην καὶ τοὺς ὑπάρχους ἀγωνισάμενοι.
For now indeed they have made Scione and Melos and Torone and two or three other cities uninhabited, but then they helped to save all the cities for Greece, fighting individually against Datis, and in common with us against Xerxes and his lieutenants.
καὶ νῦν μέν γε Αἰγινήτας ἐξῴκισαν, τότε δʼ ἐξέλιπον τὴν ἑαυτῶν ὑπὲρ τοῦ μηδὲν ἀνήκεστον τοῖς Ἕλλησι συμβῆναι, καὶ παρὸν αὐτοῖς ἀποπλεύσασιν οἴχεσθαι, ἢ καὶ τῷ βασιλεῖ προσθέσθαι καθʼ ἡμῶν, οὐκ ἐτόλμησαν.
And now indeed they displaced the Aeginetans, but then they abandoned their own land for the sake of nothing incurable happening to the Greeks, and when it was possible for them to sail away and go, or even to join themselves to the King against us, they did not dare.
ἆρʼ ἐστὶν ἃ τοὺς ἄνδρας ἐξαιτεῖται παρʼ ὑμῶν;
Are these not things that beg for these men from you?
καὶ σιωπῶ σίτου μετάδοσιν τὸ ἀρχαῖον καὶ μυστηρίων ἔτι νῦν ἐφʼ ἑκάστῳ τῷ ἔτει γιγνομένων καὶ τῶν καταφευγόντων ὑποδοχὰς καὶ μυρίας ἑτέρας φιλανθρωπίας.
And I am silent about the sharing of food in ancient times and of the mysteries still now happening in each year and the receptions of refugees and ten thousand other acts of humanity.
καὶ πρὸς μὲν τὸ κοινὸν τοιοῦτοι τῆς Ἑλλάδος οἱ νῦν ἐπίφθονοι καὶ βαρεῖς, πρὸς δʼ ὑμᾶς ἰδίᾳ τίνες;
And towards the common cause of Greece, such are these men who are now envied and heavy, but towards you individually, who are they?
ὡς μὲν Ἡρακλείδας ἐδέξαντο ταύτῃ τῇ πόλει καὶ ὡς Ἡρακλέα καὶ Διοσκούρους πρώτους ξένων ἐμύησαν ἐῶ λέγειν· καίτοι κἂν εἰ χωρὶς εὐεργεσίας πρὸς τῶν θεῶν τούτων ὑμᾶς ἱκέτευον λόγον εἶχεν αἰσχυνθῆναι.
How they received the Heracleidae in this city and how they initiated Heracles and the Dioscuri first of foreigners, I cease to speak; and yet, even if without benefit they supplicated you by these gods, it would have been reasonable to respect them.
ἀλλʼ ἐν τῷ πρὸς Μεσσηνίους πολέμῳ δεηθέντων ἡμῶν τίνες ἦσαν οἱ τὸν Τυρταῖον πέμψαντες;
But in the war against the Messenians, when we needed it, who were they who sent Tyrtaeus?
ἢ τίνες οἱ Κίμωνα ὑπὸ τὸν σεισμὸν τετρακισχιλίους ὁπλίτας ἄγοντα;
Or who were those who brought Cimon leading four thousand hoplites under the earthquake?
ἆρʼ οὖν τὰ μὲν ἐκείνων τοιαῦτα εἰς ὑμᾶς, τὰ δʼ ἡμέτερα ἐλάττω πρὸς ἐκείνους, οἳ Δωριέων μέν ποτʼ ἐπʼ αὐτοὺς στρατευόντων μόνοι πάντων οὐκ ἠξιώσαμεν, τυραννουμένοις δὲ μόνοι τῶν πάντων ἐβοηθήσαμεν;
Are then their deeds of such a kind towards you, but ours lesser towards them, we who, when the Dorians once marched against them, alone of all did not think it right to join, and when they were ruled by tyrants, alone of all helped them?
εἰς Μαραθῶνα δʼ οὕτως
And to Marathon thus...