§7.1Themistocles autem, ut Lacedaemonem venit, adire ad magistratus noluit et dedit operam, ut quam longissime tempus duceret, causam interponens se collegas exspectare.
But Themistocles, when he came to Lacedaemon, refused to go to the magistrates, and did his best to protract the time as long as possible, interposing the pretext that he was waiting for his colleagues.
§7.2cum Lacedaemonii quererentur opus nihilo minus fieri eumque in ea re conari fallere, interim reliqui legati sunt consecuti.
While the Lacedaemonians were complaining that the work was nevertheless going on and that he was trying to deceive them in that matter, meanwhile the remaining ambassadors arrived.
a quibus cum audisset non multum superesse munitionis, ad ephoros Lacedaemoniorum accessit, penes quos summum erat imperium, atque apud eos contendit falsa iis esse delata: quare aequum esse illos viros bonos nobilesque mittere, qui rem explorarent: interea se obsidem retinerent.
When he heard from them that not much of the fortification remained to be built, he went to the ephors of the Lacedaemonians, in whose hands was the supreme authority, and asserted before them that false reports had been brought to them; that therefore it was fair that they should send reliable and noble men to investigate the matter, and that in the meantime they should keep him as a hostage.
§7.3gestus est ei mos, tresque legati functi summis honoribus Athenas missi sunt.
His request was granted, and three ambassadors who had held the highest offices were sent to Athens.
cum his collegas suos Themistocles iussit proficisci iisque praedixit, ut ne prius Lacedaemoniorum legatos dimitterent quam ipse esset remissus.
Themistocles ordered his colleagues to set out with them, and instructed them beforehand not to dismiss the Lacedaemonian ambassadors until he himself should be sent back.
§7.4hos postquam Athenas pervenisse ratus est, ad magistratus senatumque Lacedaemoniorum adiit et apud eos liberrime professus est: Athenienses suo consilio, quod communi iure gentium facere possent, deos publicos suosque patrios ac penates, quo facilius ab hoste possent defendere, muris saepsisse neque in eo quod inutile esset Graeciae fecisse.
When he judged that these had arrived at Athens, he went to the magistrates and the senate of the Lacedaemonians, and most freely declared before them: that the Athenians, by his advice, which they were authorized to do by the common law of nations, had surrounded with walls their public, ancestral, and household gods, so that they might more easily defend them from the enemy; and that in this they had done nothing disadvantageous to Greece.
§7.5nam illorum urbem propugnaculum oppositum esse barbaris, apud quam iam bis copias regias fecisse naufragium.
For their city was a bulwark opposed to the barbarians, at which already twice the royal forces had suffered shipwreck.
§7.6Lacedaemonios autem male et iniuste facere, qui id potius intuerentur, quod ipsorum dominationi quam quod universae Graeciae utile esset.
But that the Lacedaemonians acted badly and unjustly in looking rather to what was useful for their own domination than to what was useful for the whole of Greece.
quare, si suos legatos recipere vellent, quos Athenas miserant, se remitterent, cum aliter illos numquam in patriam essent recepturi.
Therefore, if they wished to receive back their own ambassadors whom they had sent to Athens, they should send him back, since otherwise they would never receive them back into their country.