Panathenaicus (41-45)

If, then, one views Athens in this light and compares her, not with any city chosen at random, but with the city of the Spartans, which most people praise moderately while some[*] extol her as though the demigods had there governed the state, then Athens, in her power, in her deeds and in her benefactions to the Hellenes, will be seen to have outdistanced Sparta more than Sparta the rest of the world.

Of the ancient struggles which they have undergone in behalf of the Hellenes, I shall speak hereafter.[*] Now, however, I shall begin with the time when the Lacedaemonians conquered the cities of Achaea[*] and divided their territory with the Argives and the Messenians; for it is fitting to begin discussing them at this point. Now our ancestors will be seen to have preserved without ceasing the spirit of concord towards the Hellenes and of hatred towards the barbarians which they inherited from the Trojan War and to have remained steadfast in this policy.

First they took the islands of the Cyclades,[*] about which there had been much contention during the overlordship of Minos of Crete and which finally were occupied by the Carians,[*] and, having driven out the latter, refrained from appropriating the lands of these islands for themselves, but instead settled upon them those of the Hellenes who were most lacking in means of subsistence.

And after this, they founded many great cities on both continents,[*] swept the barbarians back from the sea, and taught the Hellenes in what way they should manage their own countries and against whom they should wage war in order to make Hellas great.

The Lacedaemonians, on the other hand, about the same time were so far from carrying out the same policy as our ancestors—from waging war on the barbarians and benefiting the Hellenes—that they were not even willing to refrain from aggression, but although they held an alien city and a territory not only adequate but greater than any other city of Hellas possessed, they were not satisfied with what they had;