Antidosis (111-115)

After these exploits he led an expedition against Samos;[*] and that city which Pericles, renowned above all others for his wisdom, his justice, and his moderation, reduced with a fleet of two hundred ships and the expenditure of a thousand talents,[*] Timotheus, without receiving from you or collecting from your allies any money whatsoever, captured after a siege of ten months with a force of eight thousand light-armed troops and thirty triremes, and he paid all these forces from the spoils of war.

And if you can point to any other man who has done a like thing, I stand ready to admit my folly in attempting to praise superlatively one who has done no more than others. Well, then, from Samos he sailed away and captured Sestos and Crithôte,[*] forcing you, who up to that time had been careless of your interests in the Chersonese, to give your attention to that territory.

And finally he took Potidaea, upon which Athens had in times past squandered twenty-four hundred talents, and he met the expense from money which he himself provided and from contributions of the Thracians; and, for full measure, he reduced all the Chalcideans to subjection.[*] To speak, not in detail, but in summary, he made you masters of twenty-four cities and spent in doing so less than your fathers paid out in the siege of Melos.

I could wish that just as it has been quite easy to recount his exploits, so it were possible to picture briefly the circumstances under which each of them was accomplished—what the situation was in Athens in each case and what the strength of our foes—, for you would then have been made to appreciate much more highly the worth of his achievements and of the man himself. As it is, the subject is so large that I must leave it untouched.

But I think you would like to have me explain to you why in the world it is that some of the generals who have a high reputation among you and are thought to be great fighters have not been able to take even a village, while Timotheus, who lacks a robust physique and has not knocked about with itinerant armies but has shared with you the duties of a citizen, has accomplished such great things. What I have to say on this question will no doubt be offensive, but it will not be without profit for you to hear it.