Plataicus (6-10)

We therefore beg of you, citizens of Athens, that you listen to our plea in a friendly spirit, reflecting that for us the most preposterous outcome of all would be, if those who have always been hostile to your city shall have regained their freedom through your efforts, but we, even when we supplicate you, should fail to obtain the same treatment as is accorded to your greatest enemies.

As for the events which have occurred in the past, I see no reason why I should speak of them at length. For who does not know that the Thebans have portioned out our land for pasturage and have razed our city to the ground? But it is with respect to their argument, by which they hope to deceive you, that we shall try to inform you.

At times, you know, they attempt to maintain that they have subjected us to this treatment because we were unwilling to be members of their federation.[*] But I ask you to consider, first, if on such grounds it is just to inflict penalties so contrary to justice and so cruel; next, if it seems to you consistent with the dignity of the city of the Plataeans, without their consent but under compulsion, to accept such dependence under the Thebans. For my part, I consider that there exists no people more overbearing than those who blot out the cities of each of us and compel us, when we have no use for it, to participate in their form of polity.

Besides this, they are clearly inconsistent in their dealings with others and with us. For when they were unable to gain our consent, they should have gone no farther than to compel us to submit to the hegemony of Thebes as they compelled Thespiae and Tanagra; for in that case we should not have suffered irremediable misfortunes. But as it is, they have made it clear that it was not their intention to give us that status; on the contrary, it was our territory they coveted.

I wonder to what precedent in the past they will appeal, and what conceivable interpretation of justice they will give, when they admit that they dictate to us in such matters. For if it is to our ancestral customs they look, they ought not to be ruling over our other cities, but far rather to be paying tribute to the Orchomenians[*]; for such was the case in ancient times. And if they hold that the treaties are valid, which indeed in justice they should be, how can they avoid admitting that they are guilty of wrong and are violating them? For these treaties direct that our cities, the small as well as the large, shall all alike be autonomous.