In what invasion into your country of all that have ever been made have they failed to
 take part? Who, more consistently than they, have been your enemies and ill-wishers? In
 the Decelean War The Decelean War is the name given to the
 latter part ( 413-404 B.C. ) of the
 Peloponnesian War when a Spartan force occupied the Attic post, Decelea, in 413 B.C. were they not authors of more mischief than the
 other invaders? When misfortune befell you, A reference to
 the Athenian naval defeat at Aegospotami , in
 405 B.C. did not they alone of the allies This is an exaggeration; not only the Thebans, but the
 Corinthians and other Peloponnesians, voted for the destruction of Athens, but
 Sparta refused; cf. Xen. Hell. 2.2.19-20 . vote that your city should
 be reduced to slavery and its territory be abandoned to pasturage as was the plain of
 Crisa , After the
 first Sacred War, at the end of the sixth century B.C., the plain of Crisa , between Delphi and the Corinthian Gulf, was declared holy ground and was
 dedicated to Apollo. 
 so that if the Lacedaemonians had been of the same opinion as the Thebans, there would
 have been nothing to prevent the authors of the salvation of all the Greeks In the Persian Wars. from being themselves enslaved by
 the Greeks and from plunging into the most grievous misfortunes? And yet what benefaction
 of their own could they adduce great enough to wipe out the hatred caused by these wrongs
 which you would justly feel toward them? Accordingly, to these Thebans no plea is left, such is the magnitude of their crimes,
 and to those who wish to speak on their behalf only this—that Boeotia is now fighting in defense of your country, and that, if you put an
 end to your friendship with them, you will be acting to the detriment of your allies; for
 it will be a matter of great consequence if the city of Thebes takes the side of the Lacedaemonians. My opinion is, however, that it is neither profitable to the allies that the weaker
 should be in servitude to the stronger (in past times, in fact, we went to war to protect
 the weak), nor that the Thebans will be so mad as to desert the alliance and hand over
 their city to the Lacedaemonians; this is not because I have confidence in the character
 of the Thebans, but because I know that they are well aware that one of two fates
 necessarily awaits them—either resisting, to die and to suffer such cruelties as they have
 inflicted, or else, going into exile, to be in want and deprived of all their hopes. Well then, are their relations with their fellow-citizens agreeable, some of whom they
 have put to death and others they have banished and robbed of their property? Or are they
 on friendly terms with the other Boeotians, whom they not only attempt to rule without
 warrant of justice, but have also in some instances razed their walls and have
 dispossessed others of their territory?