Panathenaicus (171-175)

Having heard this message, those who were then in authority at Thebes came to a decision which was in harmony neither with the opinion which some people have of them nor with their previous resolution; on the contrary, after both stating the case for themselves in reasonable terms and denouncing those who had invaded their country, they conceded to our city the recovery of the dead.

And let no one suppose that I fail to realize that I am giving a different version of these same events from that which I shall be found to have written in the Panegyricus. But I do not think that anyone of those who can grasp the meaning of these events is so obsessed by stupidity and envy as not to commend me and consider me discreet for the manner in which I have treated them then and now.[*]

On this topic, then, I know that I have written wisely and expediently. But how pre-eminent our city stood in war at that time—for it was with the desire to show this that I discussed what happened at Thebes—is, I consider, clearly revealed to all by the circumstances which compelled the king of the Argives to become a suppliant of Athens and which so disposed the authorities at Thebes towards us

that they chose of their own accord to accommodate themselves to the words dispatched to them by Athens more than to the laws ordained by the divine power. For our city would not have been in a position to settle properly any of those questions had she not stood far above the others both in reputation and in power.

Although I have many noble things to tell of in the conduct of our ancestors, I am debating in my mind in what manner to present them. Indeed I am more concerned about this than about any other thing. For I come now to that part of my subject which I reserved for the last—that part in which I promised to show that our ancestors excelled the Spartans much more in their wars and battles than in all other respects.[*]