But it would be of all things the most outrageous if we who are accounted the most
 energetic of the Hellenes should be more slack than the rest in our deliberations upon
 this question. What people do we know, worth mentioning at all, who after a single defeat
 and a single invasion of their country have in so cowardly a fashion agreed to do
 everything demanded of them? How could such men hold out against a long season of
 misfortune? Who would not censure us if, while the Messenians withstood siege for twenty years in
 order to retain Messene , In the first Messenian war, 743-724
 B.C. 
 Paus. 4.13.4 . we should so quickly withdraw from it
 under a treaty and should take no thought of our forefathers, but should allow ourselves
 to be persuaded by words to throw away this territory which they acquired by dint of
 struggles and wars? There are those, however, who care for none of these things, but, overlooking all
 considerations of shame, counsel you to follow a course which will bring disgrace upon the
 state. And so anxious are they to persuade you to give up Messene that they have dared to dwell on the weakness of Sparta and the strength of the enemy, and now they
 challenge us who oppose them to say from what quarter we expect reinforcements to come,
 seeing that we exhort you to make war. For my part, I consider that the strongest and surest ally we can have is just dealing,
 for it is probable that the favor of the gods will be with those who deal justly—that is,
 if we may judge the future by the past; and in addition to this ally are good government
 and sober habits of life, and a willingness to battle to the death against the enemy, and
 the conviction that nothing is so much to be dreaded as the reproaches of our
 fellow-citizens—qualities which we possess in larger measure than any other people in
 existence. With these allies I would far rather go to war than with multitudes of soldiers, for I
 know that those of our people who first came to this country did not prevail over their
 adversaries through numbers, but through the virtues which I have just set forth.
 Therefore we ought not to stand in fear of our enemies because they are many, but should
 much rather take courage when we see that we ourselves have borne up under our misfortunes
 as no other people have ever done,