I am going to begin what I shall say on this topic with a statement which will perhaps
 be unpleasant for some to hear, although it will not be without profit to have it said.
 For if anyone were to assert that Athens and Sparta had been the causes both of the greatest benefits and, after the
 expedition of Xerxes, of the greatest injuries to the Hellenes, without doubt he would be
 thought by those who know anything about the history of those times to speak the truth.
 For they contended with the utmost possible bravery against the power of that King, but,
 having done this, although they ought then to have adopted sound measures also for the
 tasks which followed upon that achievement, they fell into such a degree, not of folly,
 but of madness, that they made peace with the man who had led an army against them and who
 had purposed to annihilate both these cities utterly and to enslave the rest of the
 Hellenes— with such a man, I repeat, although they could easily have conquered him on both land and
 sea, they drew up a peace The Peace of Antalcidas. 
 for all time, as though he had been their benefactor, whereas, having grown jealous of
 each other’s merits and fallen into mutual warfare and rivalry, they did not cease
 attempting to destroy each other and the rest of the Hellenes until they had placed their
 common enemy in a position to reduce Athens, through the power of the Lacedaemonians, and
 again Sparta , through the power of Athens, to
 a state of the utmost peril. And although they were so far outstripped in shrewdness by the barbarian, they then
 experienced no such resentment as the things which they suffered should have provoked nor
 such as it behoved them to feel; nor at the present time are the greatest of the states of
 Hellas ashamed to vie with each other in
 fawning upon the wealth of the King; nay, Argos 
 and Thebes joined forces with him in the
 conquest of Egypt See Isoc. 4.161 , note. in order that he might be
 possessed of the greatest possible power to plot against the Hellenes, while we and the
 Spartans, although allied together, feel more hostile to each other than to those with
 whom we are each openly at war. And of this we have a not insignificant proof. For in common we deliberate about nothing
 whatsoever, but independently we each send ambassadors to the King, expecting that the one
 of these two states to which he inclines in friendship will be invested with the place of
 advantage among the Hellenes, See General
 Introduction. little realizing that those who court his favour he is wont to
 treat insolently while with those who oppose themselves to him and hold his power in
 contempt he endeavors by every means to come to terms. Cf.
 Isoc. 4.154-155 .