Panegyricus (116-120)

where fellow-countrymen, instead of waging war in defense of their territories against strangers, are fighting within their own walls[*] against each other; where more cities have been captured in war[*] than before we made the peace; and where revolutions follow so thickly upon each other that those who are at home in their own countries are more dejected than those who have been punished with exile? For the former are in dread of what is to come, while the latter live ever in the hope of their return.

And so far are the states removed from “freedom” and “autonomy”[*] that some of them are ruled by tyrants, some are controlled by alien governors, some have been sacked and razed,[*] and some have become slaves to the barbarians—the same barbarians whom we once so chastened for their temerity in crossing over into Europe, and for their overweening pride,

that they not only ceased from making expeditions against us, but even endured to see their own territory laid waste;[*] and we brought their power so low, for all that they had once sailed the sea with twelve hundred ships, that they launched no ship of war this side of Phaselis[*] but remained inactive and waited on more favorable times rather than trust in the forces which they then possessed.

And that this state of affairs was due to the valor of our ancestors has been clearly shown in the fortunes of our city: for the very moment when we were deprived of our dominion marked the beginning of a dominion[*] of ills for the Hellenes. In fact, after the disaster which befell us in the Hellespont,[*] when our rivals took our place as leaders, the barbarians won a naval victory,[*] became rulers of the sea, occupied most of the islands,[*] made a landing in Laconia, took Cythera by storm, and sailed around the whole Peloponnesus, inflicting damage as they went.

One may best comprehend how great is the reversal in our circumstances if he will read side by side the treaties[*] which were made during our leadership and those which have been published recently; for he will find that in those days we were constantly setting limits to the empire of the King,[*] levying tribute on some of his subjects, and barring him from the sea; now, however, it is he who controls the destinies of the Hellenes, who dictates[*] what they must each do, and who all but sets up his viceroys in their cities.