And not content with their other base misrepresentations, they now say that they pursued this course for the common good of the allies. And yet what they ought to have done, inasmuch as there is an Hellenic CouncilAthens’ Second Confederacy, organized in 377 B.C. For this Council cf. § 18 above. here and your city is more competent than Thebes to advise prudent measures, is, not to be here now to defend the acts they have already committed, but to have come to you for consultation before they took any such action.

But as it is, having now pillaged our possessions, acting alone, they have come here to give a share of their disrepute to all their allies. And that disrepute, if you are wise, you will shun, since it is far more honorable to compel them to emulate your scrupulousness than that you allow yourselves to be persuaded to share in the lawlessness of these people, whose principles are wholly alien to those of the rest of mankind.

For I presume that it is clear to all that it is incumbent upon the wise, in time of war to strive in every way to get the better of the enemy, but when peace is made, to regard nothing as of greater importance than their oaths and their covenants.

The Thebans, however, in the former circumstances, in all their embassies would plead the cause of "freedom" and "independence"; but now that they believe they have secured license for themselves, disregarding everything else, they have the effrontery to speak in defense of their private gain and of their own acts of violence,

and they assert that it is to the advantage of their allies that the Thebans should have our country—fools that they are, not to know that no advantage ever accrues to those who unjustly seek greedy gain; on the contrary, many a people that have unjustly coveted the territory of others have with justice brought into the greatest jeopardy their own.