Greek Texts & Translations

3.3 ^note Now take the days when we were fighting Euboea ^note and controlled Megara, Pegae, and Troezen. We were seized with a longing for peace; and, in virtue of his being Sparta's representative at Athens, we recalled Cimon's son, Miltiades ^note,who had been ostracized and was living in the Chersonese, for the one purpose of sending him to Sparta to make overtures for an armistice. 3.4On that occasion we secured a peace of fifty years with Sparta; and both sides kept the treaty in question for thirteen. Let us consider this single instance first, gentlemen. Did the Athenian democracy ever fall during this peace? No one can show that it did. On the contrary, I will tell you how much you benefited by this peace. 3.5To begin with, we fortified Peiraeus in the course of this period ^note: secondly, we built the Long Wall to the north ^note: then the existing fleet of old, unseaworthy triremes with which we had won Greece her independence by defeating the king of Persia and his barbarians—these existing vessels were replaced by a hundred new ones ^note: and it was at this time that we first enrolled three hundred cavalry and purchased three hundred Scythian archers ^note. Such were the benefits which Athens derived from the peace with Sparta, such the strength which was added thereby to the Athenian democracy.

3.6Later we went to war on account of Aegina ^note; and after both sides had suffered heavily, we were seized once more with a desire for peace. So a deputation of ten —among them my grandfather, Andocides — was chosen from the whole citizen body and dispatched to Sparta with unlimited powers to negotiate a peace. They arranged a thirty years' peace with Sparta for us. That is a long period, gentlemen; yet did the democracy ever fall in the course of it? Was any party, I ask you, ever caught plotting a revolution? No one can point to an instance. In fact just the opposite happened. 3.7The peace in question exalted the Athenian democracy; it rendered it so powerful that during the years after we gained peace we first of all deposited a thousand talents on the Acropolis and passed a law which set them apart as a state reserve ^note; in addition to that we built a hundred triremes, and decreed that they should be kept in reserve likewise: we laid out docks, ^note we enrolled twelve hundred cavalry and as many archers, and the Long Wall to the south was constructed. ^note Such were the benefits which Athens derived from the peace with Sparta, such the strength which was added thereby to the Athenian democracy.

3.8Then we went to war again on account of Megara, ^note and allowed Attica to be laid waste; but the many privations which we suffered led us to make peace once more, this time through Nicias, the son of Niceratus. ^note As you are all aware, I imagine, this peace enabled us to deposit seven thousand talents of coined silver on the Acropolis 3.9and to acquire over three hundred ships ^note: an annual tribute of more than twelve hundred talents was coming in ^note: we controlled the Chersonese, Naxos, and over two-thirds of Euboea: while to mention our other settlements abroad individually would be tedious. But in spite of all these advantages we went to war with Sparta afresh, then as now at the instigation of Argos. ^note