§5.1Fuit etiam disertus, ut nemo ei Thebanus par esset eloquentia, neque minus concinnus in brevitate respondendi quam in perpetua oratione ornatus.
He was also eloquent, so that no Theban was equal to him in eloquence, nor was he less neat in the brevity of his replies than ornate in a continuous speech.
§5.2habuit obtrectatorem Menecliden quendam, indidem Thebis, et adversarium in administranda re publica, satis exercitatum in dicendo, ut Thebanum scilicet: namque illi genti plus inest virium quam ingenii.
He had a certain detractor, one Meneclides, from the same city of Thebes, and a rival in administering the state, who was sufficiently practiced in speaking, for a Theban, that is; for that nation has more physical strength than intellect.
§5.3is quod in re militari florere Epaminondam videbat, hortari solebat Thebanos, ut pacem bello anteferrent, ne illius imperatoris opera desideraretur.
Since he saw that Epaminondas was flourishing in military affairs, he used to exhort the Thebans to prefer peace to war, lest the service of that general should be required.
huic ille 'fallis' inquit 'verbo cives tuos, quod eos a bello avocas: otii enim nomine servitutem concilias.
To him, the latter said: "You deceive your fellow-citizens with words, when you call them away from war; for under the name of peace, you are bringing about slavery.
§5.4nam paritur pax bello.
For peace is produced by war.
itaque qui ea diutina volunt frui, bello exercitati esse debent.
Therefore, those who wish to enjoy it for a long time must be trained in war.
quare si principes Graeciae vultis esse, castris est vobis utendum, non palaestra. ' §5.5idem ille Meneclides cum huic obiceret, quod liberos non haberet neque uxorem duxisset, maximeque insolentiam, quod sibi Agamemnonis belli gloriam videretur consecutus: at ille 'desine,' inquit 'Meneclida, de uxore mihi exprobrare: nam nullius in ista re minus uti consilio volo. ' (habebat enim Meneclides suspicionem adulterii. ) §5.6'quod autem me Agamemnonem aemulari putas, falleris.
Wherefore, if you wish to be the leaders of Greece, you must employ the camp, not the palaestra." When that same Meneclides reproached him because he had no children and had not taken a wife, and especially with arrogance, because he seemed to himself to have attained the military glory of Agamemnon, the former said: "Cease, Meneclides, to reproach me about a wife; for there is no one whose advice on that matter I would less wish to use." (For Meneclides was under suspicion of adultery.) "But as to your thinking that I emulate Agamemnon, you are mistaken.
namque ille cum universa Graecia vix decem annis unam cepit urbem, ego contra ea una urbe nostra dieque uno totam Graeciam Lacedaemoniis fugatis liberavi. '
For he, with the whole of Greece, in scarcely ten years took a single city; I, on the contrary, with our single city and in a single day, liberated the whole of Greece by putting the Lacedaemonians to flight."