"And the blame of all this rests on you; for you originally allowed
them to fortify their city after the Persian war, and afterward to
build their Long Walls;[22] and to this hour you have gone on
defrauding of liberty their unfortunate subjects, and are now
beginning to take it away from your own allies. For the true enslaver
of a people is he who can put an end to their slavery, but has no care
about it; and all the more, if he be reputed the champion of liberty
in Hellas. And so we have met at last, but with what difficulty! and
even now we have no definite object. By this time we ought to have
been considering, not whether we are wronged, but how we are to be
revenged. The aggressor is not now threatening, but advancing; he has
made up his mind, while we are resolved about nothing. And we know too
well how by slow degrees and with stealthy steps the Athenians
encroach upon their neighbors. While they think that you are too dull
to observe them, they are more careful; but, when they know that you
wilfully overlook their aggressions, they will strike you and not
spare. Of all Hellenes, Lacedaemonians, you are the only people who
never do anything; on the approach of an enemy, you are content to
defend yourselves against him, not by acts, but by intentions, and
seek to overthrow him, not in the infancy but in the fulness of his
strength. How came you to be considered safe? That reputation of
yours was never justified by facts. We all know that the Persian made
his way from the ends of the earth against Peloponnesus before you
encountered him in a worthy manner; and now you are blind to the
doings of the Athenians, who are not at a distance, as he was, but
close at hand. Instead of attacking your enemy, you wait to be
attacked, and take the chances of a struggle which has been deferred
until his power is doubled. And you know that the barbarian miscarried
chiefly through his own errors, and that we have oftener been
delivered from these very Athenians by blunders of their own than by
any aid from you. Some have already been ruined by the hopes which you
inspired in them; for so entirely did they trust you that they took no
precautions themselves. These things we say in no accusing or hostile
spirit--let that be understood--but by way of expostulation. For men
expostulate with erring friends; they bring accusations against
enemies who have done them a wrong.