but because they wish to hear how you have dealt with them. And as they think and dwell upon these deeds, they will not fail to recall also those ancient exploits through which you have glorified their ancestors,See 239 note. but will often talk of them amongst themselves; and first of all they will tell of the time when, being still Dorians, they saw their own cities to be inglorious and insignificant and in need of many things, and, feeling them to be unworthy, took the field against the leading states of the Peloponnesus—against Argos and Lacedaemon and Messene—

conquered them in battle and drove the vanquished both from their cities and from their lands, and seized for themselves at that time all the possessions of the enemy and have continued to hold them to this day. And no man can point to a greater or a more marvellous achievement in those times nor to an enterprise more fortunate or more blessed of the gods than that which delivered those who engaged in it from their own poverty and placed them in possession of the prosperity of others.