66.
'And the proof that we acted in no hostile spirit is that we did no harm to any one,
but made1 a proclamation that whoever wished to live under the national institutions of
Boeotia should join us.
[2]
You came to us gladly, and, entering into an agreement, for a time offered no
opposition; but afterwards, when you discovered that we were few, you turned upon us.
Even allowing that we did act somewhat inconsiderately in entering your town without
the consent of your whole people, still how different was your conduct and ours!
For if you had followed our example you would have used no violence, but thought only
of getting us out by persuasion, whereas you broke the agreement and attacked us.
Now we do not so much complain of the fate of those whom you slew in
battle—for they indeed suffered by a kind of law—but there were
others who stretched out their hands to you; and although you gave them
quarter, and then promised to us that you would spare them, in utter defiance of law you
took their lives— was not that a cruel act?
[3]
Here are three crimes which you committed within a few hours; the breach of the
agreement, the slaughter of the prisoners which followed, and the lying promise which
you made to us that you would not slay them if we did no injury to your property in the
fields; and yet you insist that we are the criminals, and that you ought to be
acquitted.
Not so; if the Lacedaemonians give just judgment: but for all these offences you shall
suffer.
1 At first they were ready to join us, but after a while they set upon us, and slew our citizens whom they had sworn to spare.
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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