59.
'These things, O Lacedaemonians, would not be for your honour.
They would be an offence1 against the common feeling of Hellas and against your ancestors.
You should be ashamed to put us to death, who are your benefactors and have never done
you any wrong, in order that you may gratify the enmity of another.
Spare us, and let your heart be softened towards us; be wise, and have mercy upon us,
considering not only how terrible will be our fate, but who the sufferers are; think too
of the uncertainty of fortune, which may strike any one however innocent.
[2]
We implore you, as is becoming and natural in our hour of need, by the Gods whom the
Hellenes worship at common altars, to listen to our prayers.
We appeal to the oaths which your fathers swore, and entreat you not to forget them.
We kneel at your fathers' tombs, and we call upon the dead not to let us be betrayed
into the hands of the Thebans, their dearest friends to their bitterest
enemies.
We remind you of the day on which we shared in their glorious deeds—we who on
this day are in danger of meeting a fearful doom.
[3]
And now we say no more; to men in our case, though we must, there is nothing harder
than to make an end; for with the end comes the decisive hour.
Our last word is that we did not surrender Plataea to the Thebans,—far rather
would we have perished from hunger, the most miserable of deaths,—but to you,
in whom we trusted, and, if you will not listen to us, you ought at least to replace us
in the same position, and allow us to choose our destiny, whatever it may be.
[4]
We adjure you not to deliver us, the Plataeans, who were so loyal to the cause of
Hellas, and who are now suppliants to you, O Lacedaemonians, out of your own hands and
your own good faith, into the hands of the Thebans, our worst enemies.
Be our saviours.
You are liberating the other Hellenes; do not destroy us.'
1 We entreat you by the common gods of Hellas, by your fathers' oaths, not to betray us. We did not surrender to the Thebans: we would rather have died of hunger: if you will not hear us, put us back in our city, and let us meet our fate.
Thucydides translated into English; with introduction, marginal analysis, notes, and indices. Volume 1. Thucydides. Benjamin Jowett. translator. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1881.
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