to
address the people. The Lacedaemonians invited them to come forward,
and they spoke as follows:

"We were not sent here to argue with your allies, but on a special
mission; observing, however, that no small outcry has arisen against
us, we have come forward, not to answer the accusations which they
bring (for you are not judges before whom either we or they have to
plead), but to prevent you from lending too ready an ear to their bad
advice and so deciding wrongly about a very serious question. We
propose also, in reply to the wider charges which are raised against
us, to show that what we have acquired we hold rightfully.

"Of the ancient deeds handed down by tradition and which no eye of any
one who hears us ever saw, why should we speak? But of the Persian
war, and other events which you yourselves remember, speak we must,
altho we have brought them forward so often that the repetition of
them is disagreeable to us. When we faced those perils we did so for
the common benefit; in the solid good you shared, and of the glory,
whatever good there may be in that, we would not be wholly deprived.
Our words are not designed to deprecate hostility, but to set forth in
evidence the character of the city with which, unless you are very
careful, you will soon be involved in war. We tell you that we, first
and alone, dared to engage with the barbarian at Marathon,[23] and
that, when he came again, being too weak to defend ourselves by land,
we and our whole people embarked on shipboard and shared with the
other Hellenes in the victory of Salamis.[24] Thereby he was prevented
from sailing to the Peloponnesus and ravaging city after city; for
against so mighty a fleet how could you have helped one another? He
himself is the best witness of our words; for when he was once
defeated at sea, he felt that his power was gone and quickly retreated
with the greater part of his army.

"The event proved undeniably that the fate of Hellas depended on her
navy. And the three chief elements of success were contributed by us;
namely, the greatest number of ships, the ablest general, the most
devoted patriotism. The ships in all numbered four hundred, and of
these, our own contingent amounted to nearly two-thirds. To the
influence of Themistocles, our general, it was chiefly due that we
fought in the strait, which was confessedly our salvation; and for
this service you yourselves honored him above any stranger who ever
visited you. Third