THE WORLD'S FAMOUS ORATIONS
becoming one for the state to give.
But you should know that go to war we must; and if we accept it willingly rather than not, we shall find the enemy less disposed to press us hard; and, moreover, that it is from the greatest hazards that the greatest honors also are gained, both by state and by individual. Our fathers, at any rate, by withstanding the Medes—tho they did not begin with such resources [as we have], but had even abandoned what they had—and by counsel, more than by fortune, and by daring, more than by strength, beat off the barbarian, and advanced those resources to their present height. And we must not fall short of them; but must repel our enemies in every way, and endeavor to bequeath our power to our posterity no less [than we received it].
The greater part of those who ere now have spoken in this place, have been accustomed to praise the man who introduced this oration into the law; considering it a right thing that it
- ↑ Delivered "in the fairest suburb" of Athens over the bodies of those who had fallen in the first Peloponnesian War. Reported by Thucydides. Translated by Henry Dale. Slightly abridged.
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