He sees that you, having respect for justice, dreading
the infamy of the thing, and exercising proper forethought, would oppose
him in any such attempt as much as if you were at war. But the Thebans,
he expected, would, in return for the services done them, allow him in
everything else to have his way, and, so far from thwarting or impeding
him, would fight on his side if he required it. You are judged by these
to be the only people incapable of betraying for lucre the national
rights of Greece, or bartering your attachment to her for any obligation
or benefit. And this opinion of you he has naturally formed, not only
from a view of present times, but by reflection on the past. For
assuredly he finds and hears that your ancestors, who might have
governed the rest of Greece on terms of submitting to Persia, not only
spurned the proposal when Alexander, this man's ancestor, came as herald
to negotiate, but preferred to abandon their country and endure any
suffering, and thereafter achieved such exploits as all the world loves
to remember,--though none could ever speak them worthily, and therefore
I must be silent, for their deeds are too mighty to be uttered in words.
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