217
However, I said this, not with any thought of reverence or justice or wisdom—the virtues which you mentionedSee 204.—but having in mind the athletic practices which have been instituted among them, their training in courage, their spirit of concord, and, in a word, their discipline for war. These all men will commend, and will concede that the Spartans practise them most of all.”
218
When he had said this, I accepted his explanation, feeling that it did not break down any of the criticisms which I had made but that it covered up, not without tact, nay, with good taste, the crudeness of his previous utterance, and that his defence on the other points showed greater moderation than his former brusque assertion. Nevertheless, though I dismissed that matter, I stated that with reference to these very claims which he made for the Spartans I had an attack which was much more damaging than what I had said on the subject of stealing among their youths.
219
“For by that practice,” I said, “they ruined their own youths, and by these which you have just mentioned, they seek to destroy the Hellenes. And it is easy to see at a glance that this is so for I think that all men will agree that those men are the basest and deserve the severest punishment who take the discoveries which have been made for our benefit and use them for the injury,
220
not of the barbarians nor of those who wrong them nor of those who invade their territory, but of those who are their nearest kin and share the same blood with them.The Perioeci, who, according to Isocrates, were of the Spartan blood, and their fellow-Dorians generally. And this is what the Spartans have done. And yet with what conscience can we say that they make good use of their warlike practices who have at all times without ceasing sought to destroy those whom it behoved them to save?
