Letter 9: To Archidamus (8-11)

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.[*]

With regard to this unhappy situation, which has now obtained for a long time, not one of the cities which lays claim to the leadership of the Hellenes has shown indignation, nor has any of its leading men been wroth, except your father. For Agesilaus alone of all whom we know unceasingly to the end longed to liberate the Greeks and to wage war against the barbarians. Nevertheless, even he erred in one respect.