Letter 9: To Archidamus (6-10)

Now I might have spoken passably about even these matters, since I knew, in the first place, that it is easier to treat copiously in cursory fashion occurrences of the past than intelligently to discuss the future and, in the second place, that all men are more grateful to those who praise them than to those who advise them[*]—for the former they approve as being well—disposed, but the latter,

if the advice comes unbidden, they look upon as officious—nevertheless, although I was already fully aware of all these considerations, I have refrained from topics which would surely be flattering and now I propose to speak of such matters as no one else would dare to discuss, because I believe that those who make pretensions to fairness and practical wisdom should choose, not the easiest subjects, but the most arduous, nor yet those which are the sweetest to the ears of the listeners, but such as will avail to benefit, not only their own states, but also all the other Greeks. And such is the subject, in fact, to which I have fixed my attention at the present time.

I marvel also at those men who have ability in action or in speech that it has never occurred to them seriously to take to heart the conditions which affect all Greeks alike, or even to feel pity for the evil plight of Hellas, so shameful and dreadful, no part of which now remains that is not teeming full of war, uprisings, slaughter, and evils innumerable.[*] The greatest share of these ills is the lot of the dwellers along the seaboard of Asia, whom by the treaty[*] we have delivered one and all into the hands, not only of the barbarians, but also of those Greeks who, though they share our speech, yet adhere to the ways of the barbarians.

These renegades, if we had any sense, we should not be permitting to come together into bands or, led by any chance leaders, to form armed contingents, composed of roving forces more numerous and powerful than are the troops of our own citizen forces. These armies do damage to only a small part of the domain of the king of Persia, but every Hellenic city they enter they utterly destroy, killing some, driving others into exile, and robbing still others of their possessions[*];

furthermore, they treat with indignity children and women, and not only dishonor the most beautiful women, but from the others they strip off the clothing which they wear on their persons, so that those who even when fully clothed were not to be seen by strangers, are beheld naked by many men; and some women, clad in rags, are seen wandering in destitution from lack of the bare necessities of life.[*]