d aloof, when he saw the Lacedaemonians growing weary of the war
at sea, asked of us, as the price of his alliance with us and the other
allies, to give up the Hellenes in Asia, whom the Lacedaemonians had
previously handed over to him, he thinking that we should refuse, and
that then he might have a pretence for withdrawing from us. About
the other allies he was mistaken, for the Corinthians and Argives and
Boeotians, and the other states, were quite willing to let them go, and
swore and covenanted, that, if he would pay them money, they would make
over to him the Hellenes of the continent, and we alone refused to give
them up and swear. Such was the natural nobility of this city, so sound
and healthy was the spirit of freedom among us, and the instinctive
dislike of the barbarian, because we are pure Hellenes, having
no admixture of barbarism in us. For we are not like many others,
descendants of Pelops or Cadmus or Egyptus or Danaus, who are by nature
barbarians, and yet pass for Hellenes, and dwell in the midst of us;
but we are pure Hellenes, uncontaminated by any foreign element, and
therefore the hatred of the foreigner has passed unadulterated into the
life-blood of the city. And so, notwithstanding our noble sentiments, we
were again isolated, because we were unwilling to be guilty of the base
and unholy act of giving up Hellenes to barbarians. And we were in the
same case as when we were subdued before; but, by the favour of Heaven,
we managed better, for we ended the war without the loss of our ships or
walls or colonies; the enemy was only too glad to be quit of us. Yet in
this war we lost many brave men, such as were those who fell owing to
the ruggedness of the ground at the battle of Corinth, or by treason at
Lechaeum. Brave men, too, were those who delivered the Persian king,
and drove the Lacedaemonians from the sea. I remind you of them, and you
must celebrate them together with me, and do honour to their memories.

Such were the actions of the men who are here interred, and of others
who have died on behalf of their country; many and glorious things
I have spoken of them, and there are yet many more and more glorious
things remaining to be told--many days and nights would not suffice to
tell of them. Let them not be forgotten, and let every man remind their
descendants that they also are soldiers who must not desert the ranks
of their ancestors, or from cowardice fall behind. Even as I exhort you
this