This, then, is what we are entitled to demand according to Greek custom and law. But we also have advice to offer and claims upon your gratitude—claims which, since we pose no threat to you as we are ...

After hearing both delegations speak, the Athenians convened two assemblies. In the first meeting, there was a clear inclination to accept Corinth's arguments. By the second assembly, however, public ...

The Athenians had immediately constructed and manned fortifications on the isthmus side of the wall. However, they built no fortifications on the Pallene side, as they didn't believe they had sufficie...

I would not have you be so callous as to allow them to harm your allies or to ignore their scheming; but neither should you rush immediately to war. Instead, send envoys to protest their actions in la...

I cannot claim to understand the lengthy speech delivered by the Athenians. While they spoke extensively in self-praise, they never once denied that they are harming our allies and the Peloponnese. If...

During this period, Pausanias, son of Cleombrotus, was dispatched from Sparta to serve as supreme commander of the Greek forces, leading twenty ships from the Peloponnese. The Athenians joined him wit...

Around this time, the Athenians began constructing the Long Walls extending to the sea—one toward Phalerum and another toward Piraeus. Meanwhile, the Phocians launched a campaign against Doris, the an...

Shortly after the Athenians returned from Euboea, they concluded a thirty-year peace treaty with Sparta and her allies, surrendering their strongholds in the Peloponnese—Nisaea, Pegae, Troezen, and Ac...

Fellow allies, we can no longer fault the Spartans for neglecting their responsibilities: they have not only voted for war themselves but have convened us here for that very purpose. We emphasize thei...

Let me return to the Spartans. I have already described their first embassy—the demands it made and the response it received regarding the expulsion of those under religious curse. A second embassy fo...

Regarding the war and each side's resources, a careful analysis will demonstrate that Athens is not inferior. The Peloponnesians, who work their own farms and lack both private wealth and public treas...

The crucial issue is the obstacle they'll face from lack of funds. The slow accumulation of money will create delays, but the critical moments of war don't wait for anyone. Furthermore, we shouldn't w...

In my view, this fairly represents the Peloponnesian position. Athens's situation, by contrast, avoids the weaknesses I've identified in theirs and possesses unique advantages they cannot match. Shoul...

Following the incident at Plataea, Sparta immediately dispatched orders throughout the Peloponnese and to all allied territories, commanding them to prepare soldiers and supplies necessary for a campa...

While the Peloponnesian forces were still gathering at the Isthmus or marching toward their invasion of Attica, Pericles son of Xanthippus, one of Athens' ten generals, learned that the invasion was i...

The Peloponnesian army continued its advance. The first place they reached in Attica was Oenoe, their intended entry point into the territory. They settled in for a siege, preparing to attack the wall...

Archidamus's decision to maintain his battle formation at Acharnae rather than advancing into the plain during this invasion is explained as follows. He calculated that the Athenians, given their unpr...

Meanwhile, Pericles recognized that the people were consumed by anger and acting irrationally. Confident in his judgment that they should not engage the enemy outside the walls, he refused to convene ...

I will start with our ancestors, for it is both right and fitting that they should receive the honor of being mentioned first on such an occasion. They lived continuously in this land, passing it down...

Furthermore, we provide abundant opportunities for the mind to find respite from work. Throughout the year, we hold festivals and religious ceremonies, while the refinement of our private homes offers...

In essence, I declare that our city serves as the educational model for all Greece. I doubt whether the world can produce an individual who, relying solely on his own resources, can adapt to so many d...

That same summer, Hagnon son of Nicias and Cleopompus son of Clinias, who served as colleagues of Pericles, took command of the forces Pericles had recently used and launched an expedition against the...

Of course, for those who have the luxury of choice and whose prosperity is secure, war is the height of folly. But when the only alternatives are submission at the cost of freedom or danger with the h...

These were the arguments Pericles used to heal the Athenians' rage against him and to redirect their minds from their current miseries. On the public level, he succeeded in persuading them; they aband...

During that same summer, the Spartans and their allies launched a naval expedition with one hundred ships against Zakynthos, an island off the coast of Elis. The island was inhabited by Achaean coloni...

That same winter, the Potidaeans finally reached the point where they could no longer withstand the siege. The Peloponnesian invasions of Attica had failed to achieve their intended purpose of forcing...

Peloponnesians, while our recent engagement may have left some of you apprehensive about the coming battle, there are no legitimate grounds for such fear. As you're aware, we had minimal preparation f...

I can see, men, that the enemy's numbers have frightened you, and that's why I've called this assembly—I won't have you intimidated by something that isn't truly fearsome. First, consider this: the Pe...

Time and again I have become convinced that democracy is incompatible with maintaining an empire, and your current reversal regarding Mytilene proves this point more clearly than ever. Because you liv...

I stand by my original position and am astonished at those who wish to reopen the Mytilenean debate, thereby creating a delay that benefits only the guilty party. Such postponement dulls the sharp edg...

Let no one harbor the illusion that eloquent speeches or financial bribes can secure mercy for the Mitylenians on grounds of human weakness. Their crime was not accidental but calculated and deliberat...

These were the arguments presented by Diodotus. The two speeches represented the most sharply opposing viewpoints in the debate. Despite their recent change of heart, the Athenians now called for a vo...