57
In that time no warships sailed from Asia, no despot held sway among the Greeks, no city of Greece was forced into serfdom by the barbarians; so great was the restraint and awe inspired in all mankind by the valor of our people. And for this reason none but they should become protectors of the Greeks and leaders of the cities.
58
And in misfortunes also they displayed their accustomed valor. For when the ships were destroyed in the HellespontAt Aegospotami, 405 B.C.—whether it was through the fault of the commander or by the design of Heaven—and that supreme disaster overtook not only us, who suffered that misfortune, but all the rest of the Greeks, it became evident shortly after that the power of our city was the salvation of Greece.
59
The leadership was taken by others, and a people who had never before embarked upon the sea defeated the Greeks in a naval action; they sailed to Europe and enslaved cities of the Greeks, in which despots were established, some after our disaster, and others after the victory of the barbarians.The Persian fleet under Conon defeated the Lacedaemonians under Peisander at Cnidus in Cilicia, 394 B.C. In the preceding years Sparta, relying on the support of Persia, had placed her governors in many Greek cities: after Cnidus the Greeks of Asia Minor were abandoned to Persian rule.
