On the Peace (81-85)

I fear, therefore, since you are of such a mind, that if I attempt to benefit you I may myself reap a poor reward. Nevertheless, I am not going to refrain entirely from saying the things which I had in mind but shall pass over the most severe and, mayhap, the most painful to you and recall to your minds only the facts by which you will recognize the folly of the men who at that time governed the city.

For so exactly did they gauge[*] the actions by which human beings incur the worst odium that they passed a decree to divide the surplus of the funds derived from the tributes of the allies into talents and to bring it on the stage,[*] when the theatre was full, at the festival of Dionysus[*]; and not only was this done but at the same time they led in upon the stage the sons of those who had lost their lives in the war,[*] seeking thus to display to our allies,[*] on the one hand, the value of their own property[*] which was brought in by hirelings,[*] and to the rest of the Hellenes, on the other, the multitude of the fatherless and the misfortunes which result from this policy of aggression.

And in doing this they themselves counted the city happy, while many of the simple-minded deemed it blessed, taking no thought whatsoever for future consequences but admiring and envying the wealth which flowed into the city unjustly and which was soon to destroy also that which justly belonged to it.

For they reached such a degree of neglect of their own possessions and of covetousness of the possessions of other states that when the Lacedaemonians had invaded our territory and the fortifications at Decelea[*] had already been built, they manned triremes to send to Sicily[*] and were not ashamed to permit their own country to be cut off and plundered[*] by the enemy while dispatching an expedition against a people who had never in any respect offended against us.

Nay, they arrived at such a pitch of folly that at a time when they were not masters of their own suburbs[*] they expected to extend their power over Italy and Sicily and Carthage.[*] And so far did they outdo all mankind in recklessness that whereas misfortunes chasten others and render them more prudent our fathers learned no lessons even from this discipline.