History of the Peloponnesian War

But the Plataeans, having sued to make their answer more at large and having appointed Astymachus the son of Asopolaus and Lacon the son of Aeimnestus (who had been heretofore the host of the Lacedaemonians) for their speakers, said as followeth:

"Men of Lacedaemon, relying upon you we yielded up our city, not expecting to undergo this but some more legal manner of proceeding; and we agreed not to stand to the judgment of others (as now we do) but of yourselves only, conceiving we should so obtain the better justice. But now we fear we have been deceived in both.

For we have reason to suspect both that the trial is capital, and you, the judges, partial, gathering so much both from that, that there hath not been presented any accusation to which we might answer, and also from this, that the interrogatory is short and such, as if we answer to it with truth, we shall speak against ourselves and be easily convinced if we lie.