Panathenaicus (196-200)

All these whom I have instanced, having invaded our country—not together nor at the same time, but as opportunity and self-interest and desire concurred in each case—our ancestors conquered in battle and put an end to their insolence. And yet they did not forsake their true selves[*] after they had achieved successes of such magnitude nor did they experience the same misadventure as those who, owing to the exercise of good and wise judgement, have attained great wealth and good reputation, but who, owing to excess of good fortune, have grown overweening, lost their senses, and have been brought down to lower and meaner circumstances than those which they enjoyed before.

On the contrary, they escaped all such aberrations and remained steadfast in the character which they had because of the excellence of their government, taking more pride in their state of soul and in the quality of their minds than in the battles which had been fought, and being more admired by the rest of the world because of this self-control and moderation than because of the bravery displayed in their perils.

For all men saw that the fighting spirit is possessed by many even of those who outdo others in villainy, while that spirit which is beneficent in all things and is helpful to all men is not shared by the depraved, but is engendered only in men who are of good birth and breeding and education—even such as were those who then governed our city and brought to pass all the good things which I have described.

Now I observe that the other orators close their discourses with the greatest and most memorable deeds, but, while I commend the wisdom of those who hold and practise this principle, yet I am not in a position to do this same thing, but am compelled to go on with my discourse. The reason why, I shall explain presently, after first saying just a word.

After I had written out my discourse as far as what has been read, I was revising it with three or four youths who are wont to spend their time in my society. And when, on going over what I had written, it seemed to us to be good and to require only an ending, it occurred to me to send for one of those who had studied with me[*] but had lived under an oligarchy and had elected to extol the Lacedaemonians. I did this in order that, if any false statement had escaped me, he might detect it and point it out to me.