." II. ii. 19; III. v. 8, in reference to B.C. 405.

"That was a great deed and of fair renown, attributed in old story to
your ancestors, that they did not suffer those Argives who died on the
Cadmeia (44) to lie unburied; but a fairer wreath of glory would
you weave for your own brows if you suffer not these still living
Lacedaemonians to be trampled under the heel of insolence and destroyed.
Fair, also, was that achievement when you stayed the insolence of
Eurystheus and saved the sons of Heracles; (45) but fairer still than
that will your deed be if you rescue from destruction, not the primal
authors (46) merely, but the whole city which they founded; fairest of
all, if because yesterday the Lacedaemonians won you your preservation
by a vote which cost them nothing, you to-day shall bring them help with
arms, and at the price of peril. It is a proud day for some of us to
stand here and give what aid we can in pleading for assistance to brave
men. What, then, must you feel, who in very deed are able to render
that assistance! How generous on your parts, who have been so often the
friends and foes of Lacedaemon, to forget the injury and remember only
the good they have done! How noble of you to repay, not for yourselves
only, but for the sake of Hellas, the debt due to those who proved
themselves good men and true in her behalf!"

(44) In reference to the Seven against Thebes, see Herod. IX. xxvii.
4; Isoc. "Paneg." 55.

(45) Herod. IX. xxvii. 3; see Isoc. "Paneg." 56. "The greatness of
Sparta was founded by the succour which Athens lent to the
Heraklid invaders of the Peloponnese--a recollection which ought
to restrain Sparta from injuring or claiming to rule Athens.
Argos, Thebes, Sparta were in early times, as they are now, the
foremost cities of Hellas; but Athens was the greatest of them all
--the avenger of Argos, the chastiser of Thebes, the patron of
those who founded Sparta."--Jebb, "Att. Or." ii. 154.

(46) Plut. "Lyc." vi.

After these speeches the Athenians deliberated, and though there was
opposition, the arguments of gainsayers (47) fell upon deaf ears. The
assembly finally passed a decree to send assistance to Lacedaemon in
force, and they chose Iphicrates general. Then followed the preliminary
sacrifices, and then the general's order to his troops to take the
evening meal in the grove of the Academy. (48) But the general himself,
it is said, was in no hurry to le