end by the
whole city on their own behalf, and on behalf of their countrymen. There
was peace, and our city was held in honour; and then, as prosperity
makes men jealous, there succeeded a jealousy of her, and jealousy
begat envy, and so she became engaged against her will in a war with
the Hellenes. On the breaking out of war, our citizens met the
Lacedaemonians at Tanagra, and fought for the freedom of the Boeotians;
the issue was doubtful, and was decided by the engagement which
followed. For when the Lacedaemonians had gone on their way, leaving the
Boeotians, whom they were aiding, on the third day after the battle of
Tanagra, our countrymen conquered at Oenophyta, and righteously restored
those who had been unrighteously exiled. And they were the first after
the Persian war who fought on behalf of liberty in aid of Hellenes
against Hellenes; they were brave men, and freed those whom they aided,
and were the first too who were honourably interred in this sepulchre by
the state. Afterwards there was a mighty war, in which all the Hellenes
joined, and devastated our country, which was very ungrateful of them;
and our countrymen, after defeating them in a naval engagement and
taking their leaders, the Spartans, at Sphagia, when they might have
destroyed them, spared their lives, and gave them back, and made peace,
considering that they should war with the fellow-countrymen only until
they gained a victory over them, and not because of the private anger
of the state destroy the common interest of Hellas; but that with
barbarians they should war to the death. Worthy of praise are they also
who waged this war, and are here interred; for they proved, if any one
doubted the superior prowess of the Athenians in the former war with
the barbarians, that their doubts had no foundation--showing by their
victory in the civil war with Hellas, in which they subdued the other
chief state of the Hellenes, that they could conquer single-handed those
with whom they had been allied in the war against the barbarians.
After the peace there followed a third war, which was of a terrible and
desperate nature, and in this many brave men who are here interred lost
their lives--many of them had won victories in Sicily, whither they had
gone over the seas to fight for the liberties of the Leontines, to
whom they were bound by oaths; but, owing to the distance, the city was
unable to help them, and they lost heart and came to misfortune, their
ve