History of the Peloponnesian War

The military exploits whereby our several possessions were acquired, whether in any case it were we ourselves or our fathers that valiantly repelled the onset of war, Barbarian or Hellenic, I will not recall, for I have no desire to speak at length among those who know. But I shall first set forth by what sort of training we have come to our present position, and with what political institutions and as the result of what manner of life our empire became great, and afterwards proceed to the praise of these men; for I think that on the present occasion such a recital will be not inappropriate and that the whole throng, both of citizens and of strangers, may with advantage listen to it.

"We live under a form of government which does not emulate the institutions of our neighbours[*](Alluding to the Spartans, whose institutions were said to have been borrowed from Crete; in fact, throughout the whole speech the constrast is with Spartan conditions.); on the contrary, we are ourselves a model which some[*](Possible allusion to the embassy sent from Rome in 454 B.c. to examine the laws of Solon (Livy 3. 31).) follow, rather than the imitators of other peoples. It is true that our government is called a democracy, because its administration is in the hands, not of the few, but of the many; yet while as regards the law all men are on an equality for the settlement of their private disputes, as regards the value set on them it is as each man is in any way distinguished that he is preferred to public honours, not because he belongs to a particular class, but because of personal merits; nor, again, on the ground of poverty is a man barred from a public career by obscurity of rank if he but has it in him to do the state a service.