in take the case of those whom they have detached from
yourselves. In the most patent way they have cajoled and cheated them;
in place of freedom they have presented them with a twofold slavery. The
allies are tyrannised over by the governor and tyrannised over by the
ten commissioners set up by Lysander over every city. (20) And to come
lastly to the great king. In spite of all the enormous contributions
with which he aided them to gain a mastery over you, is the lord of Asia
one whit better off to-day than if he had taken exactly the opposite
course and joined you in reducing them?

(20) Grote ("H. G." ix. 323), referring to this passage, and to
"Hell." VI. iii. 8-11, notes the change in Spartan habits between
405 and 394 B.C. (i.e. between the victory of Aegospotami and the
defeat of Cnidos), when Sparta possessed a large public revenue
derived from the tribute of the dependent cities. For her earlier
condition, 432 B.C., cf. Thuc. i. 80. For her subsequent
condition, 334 B.C., cf. Arist. "Pol." ii. 6, 23.

"Is it not clear that you have only to step forward once again as the
champions of this crowd of sufferers from injustice, and you will attain
to a pinnacle of power quite unprecedented? In the days of your old
empire you were leaders of the maritime powers merely--that is clear;
but your new empire to-day will be universal. You will have at
your backs not only your former subjects, but ourselves, and the
Peloponnesians, and the king himself, with all that mighty power
which is his. We do not deny that we were serviceable allies enough to
Lacedaemon, as you will bear us witness; but this we say:--If we helped
the Lacedaemonians vigorously in the past, everything tends to show that
we shall help you still more vigorously to-day; for our swords will be
unsheathed, not in behalf of islanders, or Syracusans, or men of alien
stock, as happened in the late war, but of ourselves, suffering under a
sense of wrong. And there is another important fact which you ought to
realise: this selfish system of organised greed which is Sparta's will
fall more readily to pieces than your own late empire. Yours was the
proud assertion of naval empire over subjects powerless by sea. Theirs
is the selfish sway of a minority asserting dominion over states equally
well armed with themselves, and many times more numerous. Here our
remarks end. Do not forget, however, men of Athens, that as far as we
can understand