It is not, I assure you, because I am ambitious to be an orator, nor because I am
 prepared to change my former mode of life that I have spoken as I have about these things,
 but because I want to urge you not to reject any time of life, but to seek among all ages
 for the man who can offer good advice on the problems which now confront us; for never since we have dwelt in Sparta has
 any war or any peril come upon us in which so much has been at stake as in this question
 which we are now assembled to discuss. For while in times past we fought that we might
 have dominion over the other states, now we must fight that we ourselves may not be forced
 to do their bidding—which is proof of a free spirit, to preserve which no hardship on
 earth is too great to endure, not for us alone, but for all others as well who have not
 renounced every claim to manhood but still make even slight pretensions to courage. As for myself, at any rate, if I may speak my own mind, I had rather die this moment for
 not complying with the dictates of the foe than live many times my allotted span of life
 at the price of voting what the Thebans demand. For I should feel disgraced, I who am
 descended from Heracles, The Spartan kings claimed descent
 from Heracles Isoc. 4.62 . who am the son of the
 ruling king and likely myself to attain to this honor, Archidamus became king after the death of Agesilaus in 361
 B.C. if I did not strive with all the strength that is in me to prevent
 this territory, which our fathers left to us, from becoming the possession of our slaves.
 And I expect you also to share my feelings when you reflect that, while until the present
 day we seem to have been unfortunate in our contest with the Thebans, Since the battle of Leuctra. and to have been overcome in body because
 of the mistakes of our leader, Cleombrotus the king was
 partly blamed for the Spartan defeat at Leuctra. yet up to this moment we possess
 our spirits unconquered; but that if through fear of the dangers which now threaten us we relinquish anything that
 is ours, we shall justify the boasts of the Thebans, and erect against ourselves a trophy
 far more imposing and conspicuous than that which was raised at Leuctra; for the one will
 stand as a memorial of our ill-fortune; the other, of our abject spirit. Let no man,
 therefore, persuade you to fasten such a disgrace upon the state.