But one thing the Thebans will not be able to say—that they remain loyal to their
 associates, though there is reason to fear that we, having recovered our country, will
 desert to the Lacedaemonians; for you will find, Athenians, that we have twice been
 besieged By the Thebans in 427 (Thucydides iii. 52) and
 again in 373 B.C. and forced to surrender because of
 our friendship for you, while the Thebans often have wronged this city. It would be a laborious task to recount their treacheries in the past, but when the
 Corinthian war broke out because of their overbearing conduct and the Lacedaemonians had
 marched against them, although the Thebans had been saved by you, they were so far from
 showing their gratitude for this service that, when you had put an end to the war, they
 abandoned you and entered into the alliance with the Lacedaemonians. The people of Chios , of Mytilen, and of
 Byzantium remained loyal, but the
 Thebans, although they dwelt in a city of such importance, did not have the fortitude even
 to remain neutral, but were guilty of such cowardice and baseness as to give their solemn
 oath to join the Lacedaemonians in attacking you, the saviors of their city. For this they
 were punished by the gods, and, after the Cadmea was captured, they were forced to take
 refuge here in Athens . By this they furnished
 the crowning proof of their perfidy; for when they had again been saved by your power and were restored to their city, they
 did not remain faithful for a single instant, but immediately sent ambassadors to
 Lacedaemon , showing themselves ready to be
 slaves and to alter in no respect their former agreements with Sparta . Why need I speak at greater length? For if the
 Lacedaemonians had not ordered them to take back their exiles and exclude the murderers,
 nothing would have hindered them from taking the field as allies of those who had injured
 them, against you their benefactors. And these Thebans, who have recently behaved in such fashion toward your city and in
 times past have been guilty of betraying Greece 
 as a whole, In the Persian Wars. have seen fit to
 demand for themselves forgiveness for their evil deeds willingly committed and so
 monstrous, yet to us, for acts done under compulsion, they think no mercy ought to be
 shown, but they, true Thebans as they are, have the effrontery to reproach others for
 siding with the Lacedaemonians, when they, as we all know, have for the longest time been
 in servitude to them and have fought more zealously for Spartan domination than for their
 own security!