our views, half ours; and in every single
state one party is for Sparta and another for Athens. Suppose, then,
we were to shake hands, from what quarter can we reasonably anticipate
danger and trouble? To put the case in so many words, so long as you
are our friends no one can vex us by land; no one, whilst we are your
supports, can injure you by sea. Wars like tempests gather and grow to a
head from time to time, and again they are dispelled. That we all know.
Some future day, if not to-day, we shall crave, both of us, for peace.
Why, then, need we wait for that moment, holding on until we expire
under the multitude of our ills, rather than take time by the forelock
and, before some irremediable mischief betide, make peace? I cannot
admire the man who, because he has entered the lists and has scored many
a victory and obtained to himself renown, is so eaten up with the spirit
of rivalry that he must needs go on until he is beaten and all his
training is made futile. Nor again do I praise the gambler who, if he
makes one good stroke of luck, insists on doubling the stakes. Such
conduct in the majority of cases must end in absolute collapse. Let us
lay the lesson of these to heart, and forbear to enter into any such
lists as theirs for life or death; but, while we are yet in the heyday
of our strength and fortune, shake hands in mutual amity. So assuredly
shall we through you and you through us attain to an unprecedented
pinnacle of glory throughout Hellas."

The arguments of the speakers were approved, and the Lacedaemonians
passed a resolution to accept peace on a threefold basis: the withdrawal
of the governors from the cities, (14) the disbanding of armaments naval
and military, and the guarantee of independence to the states. "If any
state transgressed these stipulations, it lay at the option of any power
whatsoever to aid the states so injured, while, conversely, to bring
such aid was not compulsory on any power against its will." On these
terms the oaths were administered and accepted by the Lacedaemonians on
behalf of themselves and their allies, and by the Athenians and
their allies separately state by state. The Thebans had entered their
individual name among the states which accepted the oaths, but their
ambassadors came the next day with instructions to alter the name of
the signatories, substituting for Thebans Boeotians. (15) But Agesilaus
answered to this demand that he would alter nothing of what they had