Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 1.djvu/342

226 SPEECH OF THE PLATAEANS [ill offering of garments, and other customary gifts. We were their friends, and we gave them the firstfruits in their season of that friendly land in which they rest; we were their allies too, who in times past had fought at their side ; and if you now pass an unjust sentence, will not your con- duct strangely contrast with ours ? Reflect : when Pau- sanias buried them here, he thought that he was laying them among friends and in friendly earth. But if you put us to death, and make Plataea one with Thebes, are you not robbing your fathers and kindred of the honour which they enjoy, and leaving them in a hostile land inhabited by their murderers ? Nay more, you will enslave the land in which the Hellenes won their liberty; you bring desolation upon the temples in which they prayed when they conquered the Persians ; and you will take away the sacrifices which our fathers instituted from the city which ordained and established them. 59 ' These things, O Lacedaemonians, would not be for IVe entreat you by y^^^ honour. They would be an of- ihc conunon gods of fence against the common feeling of Hellas, by your fathers' Hellas and against your ancestors, oaths, not to betray us. ^ , i i j i i i , We did not surrender to ^OU should be ashamed to put US tO iheThehans: weivould death, who are your benefactors and rather have dud of have never done you any wrong, in hunger: if you will not i .1 . .•/- .1 hear us, put us back in Order that you may gratify the enmity ourcity,andletus meet of another. Spare US, and let your our fate. heart be softened towards us ; be wise, and have mercy upon us, considering not only how terrible will be our fate, but who the sufferers are ; think too of the uncertainty of fortune, which may strike any one how- ever innocent. We implore you, as is becoming and natural in our hour of need, by the Gods whom the Hellenes worship at common altars, to listen to our prayers. We appeal to the oaths which your fathers swore, and entreat you not to forget them. We kneel at your fathers' tombs, and we call upon the dead not to let us be betrayed into the hands of the Thebans, their dearest