History of the Peloponnesian War

And the zeal we displayed was that of utmost daring, for when there was no one to help us on land, since all the rest up to our very borders were already slaves, we resolved to abandon our city and sacrifice all our possessions; yet not even in that extremity to desert the common cause of the allies who remained, or by dispersing to render ourselves useless to them, but to embark on our ships and fight, and not to be angry because you failed to help us earlier. We therefore maintain that we on our part conferred upon you a benefit at least as great as we received;

for whereas the population of the cities from which you brought aid was still undisturbed and you could hope to possess them in the future, and your motive was fear for yourselves rather than for us—at any rate you did not come near so long as we were still unharmed—we on our part, setting forth from a city that was no more,[*](cf. the taunt of Adimantus: περὶ οὐδεμίης ἔτι πατρίδος ναυμαχήσειςHdt. 8.57.7, You will fight for a country that is no more,, and the famous answer of Themistocles, ὡς εἴη καὶ πόλις καὶ γῆ μέζων ἤπερ κείνοις ἔστ’ ἂν διηκόσιαι νέες σφι ἔωσι πεπληρωμέναι,Hdt. 8.61.8, We have a city and a country greater than yours as long as we have two hundred ships fully manned.) and risking our lives in behalf of one whose future hung upon but a slender hope, bore our part in saving both you and ourselves.

But if we had acted as others did, and through fear of losing our territory had gone over to the Persians earlier in the war, or afterwards had lacked the courage to embark on our ships, in the conviction that we were already ruined, it would from that moment have been useless for you, with your inadequate fleet, to fight at sea, but the Persian's plans would have moved on quietly just as he wished.

"Considering, then, Lacedaemonians, the zeal and sagacity of judgment which we displayed at that time, do we deserve to be regarded with this excessive jealousy by the Hellenes just on account of the empire we possess ?