History of the Peloponnesian War

After the festival the Peloponnesians met in council, and the envoys spoke as follows:

"We are not unaware, men of Lacedaemon and members of the alliance, of the traditional feeling of the Hellenes towards men who revolt in time of war and abandon their former alliance: those who accept them as allies are indeed pleased with them in so far as they derive advantage, but they regard them as traitors to their former friends and therefore think the worse of them.

And this estimate is not unjust, provided that those who revolt and those from whom they secede held the same political views and were actuated by the same feeling of good will toward one another, and were evenly matched in preparation for war and in power, and provided also that there were no reasonable excuse for their revolt. But these conditions did not obtain between us and the Athenians;

therefore, let no one think the worse of us on the ground that we were honoured by them in time of peace and now revolt from them in time of danger.

"We will first discuss the question of justice and rectitude, especially as we are seeking an alliance, for we know that neither does friendship between men prove lasting, nor does a league between states come to aught, unless they comport themselves with transparent honesty of purpose towards one another and in general are of like character and way of thinking;

for differences in men's actions arise from the diversity of their convictions. "Now between us and the Athenians an alliance was first made when you withdrew from the Persian war but they remained to finish the work.

We became allies, however, not to the Athenians for the enslavement of the Hellenes, but to the Hellenes for their emancipation from the Persians. And as long as they maintained their hegemony on terms of equality we heartily followed their lead;