105
and these we should strive to win, sparing neither our bodies nor our lives nor anything else which we possess. For if we succeed, and are able to raise our city again to the eminence from which she has fallen, we shall be more admired than our ancestors, and shall not only leave to our descendants no opportunity to surpass our valor, but shall make those who wish to sing our praise despair of saying anything equal to our achievements.
106
Nor must you forget that the attention of the whole world is fixed upon this assembly and on the decision which you shall reach here. Let each one of you, therefore, govern his thoughts as one who is giving an account of his own character in a public theater, as it were, before the assembled Hellenes.
107
Now it is a simple matter to reach a wise decision on this question. For if we are willing to die for our just rights, not only shall we gain renown, but in time to come we shall be able to live securely; but if we show that we are afraid of danger, we shall plunge ourselves into endless confusion.
108
Let us, therefore, challenge one another to pay back to our fatherland the price of our nurture, and not suffer Lacedaemon to be outraged and contemned, nor cause those who are friendly to us to be cheated of their hopes, nor let it appear that we value life more highly than the esteem of all the world,
109
always remembering that it is a nobler thing to exchange a mortal body for immortal glory, and to purchase with a life which at best we shall retain for only a few years a fame which will abide with our descendants throughout all the agesFor the language cf. Dem. 60.27, and Hyp. 6.24.—a far nobler course than to cling greedily to a little span of life and cover ourselves with great disgrace!
