s:

"Most of my predecessors in this place have commended him who made this
speech part of the law, telling us that it is well that it should be
delivered at the burial of those who fall in battle. For myself, I
should have thought that the worth which had displayed itself in deeds
would be sufficiently rewarded by honours also shown by deeds; such as
you now see in this funeral prepared at the people's cost. And I could
have wished that the reputations of many brave men were not to be
imperilled in the mouth of a single individual, to stand or fall
according as he spoke well or ill. For it is hard to speak properly upon
a subject where it is even difficult to convince your hearers that you
are speaking the truth. On the one hand, the friend who is familiar with
every fact of the story may think that some point has not been set
forth with that fullness which he wishes and knows it to deserve; on the
other, he who is a stranger to the matter may be led by envy to suspect
exaggeration if he hears anything above his own nature. For men can
endure to hear others praised only so long as they can severally
persuade themselves of their own ability to equal the actions recounted:
when this point is passed, envy comes in and with it incredulity.
However, since our ancestors have stamped this custom with their
approval, it becomes my duty to obey the law and to try to satisfy your
several wishes and opinions as best I may.

"I shall begin with our ancestors: it is both just and proper that they
should have the honour of the first mention on an occasion like the
present. They dwelt in the country without break in the succession from
generation to generation, and handed it down free to the present time by
their valour. And if our more remote ancestors deserve praise, much more
do our own fathers, who added to their inheritance the empire which we
now possess, and spared no pains to be able to leave their acquisitions
to us of the present generation. Lastly, there are few parts of our
dominions that have not been augmented by those of us here, who are
still more or less in the vigour of life; while the mother country has
been furnished by us with everything that can enable her to depend on
her own resources whether for war or for peace. That part of our history
which tells of the military achievements which gave us our several
possessions, or of the ready valour with which either we or our fathers
stemmed the tide of Hellenic or fo