To Archidamus (101-105)

Let us, then, remembering all these things, take up the war with greater vigor, and let us not delay in the expectation that others will remedy our present misfortunes, but since these have occurred in our own time, let us ourselves endeavor also to end them. It is just in such emergencies as these that men of worth must show their superiority;

for prosperity helps to hide the baseness even of inferior men,[*] but adversity speedily reveals every man as he really is; and in adversity we of Sparta must show whether we have been in any wise better nurtured and trained to valor than the rest of mankind.

But indeed we are in no wise without hope that out of our present misfortunes may come a happy issue. For you are, I am sure, not unaware that ere now many events have occurred of such a nature that, at first, all regarded them as calamities and sympathized with those on whom they had fallen, while later everyone came to see that these same reverses had brought about the greatest blessings.

But why need I mention remote instances? Even now we should find that those states which are foremost—Athens and Thebes, I mean—have not derived their great progress from peace, but that, on the contrary, it was in consequence of their recovery from previous reverses in war that one of them was made leader of the Hellenes,[*] while the other has at the present time become a greater state than anyone ever expected she would be. Indeed, honors and distinctions are wont to be gained, not by repose, but by struggle,

and these we should strive to win, sparing neither our bodies nor our lives nor anything else which we possess. For if we succeed, and are able to raise our city again to the eminence from which she has fallen, we shall be more admired than our ancestors, and shall not only leave to our descendants no opportunity to surpass our valor, but shall make those who wish to sing our praise despair of saying anything equal to our achievements.