10
These are the actual facts; but such an excess of insolence have my father’s enemies that they accuse him, who was exiled in so illegal a manner as if he had committed outrageous crimes, and try to ruin his reputation by saying that he caused the fortification of Decelea,Decelea was a fort on Mt. Parnes, fourteen miles N.E. from Athens. The Lacedaemonians occupied it in 413 B.C. Cf. Lys. 14.30, and for the facts Thuc. 6.91.6. and the revolt of the islands, and that he became the enemy’s counsellor.
11
And sometimes they pretend to despise him,Cf. Lys. 14.35-38. saying that in no respect did he excel his contemporaries; yet at the present time they blame him for all that has happened and say that the Lacedaemonians have learned from him the art of war—they who can teach the rest of the world this accomplishment! As for me, if I had sufficient time, I could easily prove that some of those things he did justly, but that others are unjustly imputed to him. Yet the most shocking thing that could happen would be this—if, while after his exile my father was recompensed, I, because he was exiled, should be penalized.
